Michael Sheen (Far from the Madding Crowd) has joined the science fiction romance Passengers, which will star Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) and Chris Pratt (Jurassic World). Sheen will reportedly play a robot on the spaceship transporting people to a distant colony. During the trip, Jim Preston (Pratt) wakes up from his cryogenic sleep 90 years early. Desparate for company, he decides to wake up a female passenger (Lawrence), and a romance between the two ensues.
To say Sheen has diversified his filmography lately is an understatement. Along with starring in the recent HBO sports mockumentary 7 Days in Hell, he also played one of Carey Mulligan’s (Suffragette) suitors in the period piece Far from the Madding Crowd. He can currently be seen in the third season of the Showtime drama Masters of Sex. He will also return to lend his voice as the White Rabbit in the Disney sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) is the director on Passengers and Jon Spaihts (Prometheus) wrote the script. Tyldum is also directing the fantasy-adventure based on the William Gibson Novel, Pattern Recognition, along with the sci-fi TV series Counterpart.
Passengers is set to hit theaters in 2016. Given the cast and Tyldum’s experience, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it be released in the fall to attract awards interest.
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