If you’re at all familiar with actress Olivia Thirlby, it’s probably via her turn as Leah, friend to Ellen Page’s pregnant whizkid teenager in Juno. Or you might have seen her getting her flirt on with Josh Peck back in the 2008 flick The Wackness. Of course, if you’ve really got indie movie cred then you might even recall her debut in the Paul Greengrass 9/11 film United 93– I fully confess that I didn’t.
That said, Thirlby has been cast in the new sci-fi flick The Darkest Hour, which is being produced by Timur Bekmambetov (ie. the director of Wanted and the Night Watch trilogy) and directed by Chris Gorak (who is best known as the art director on pics like Minority Report and Fight Club). The film’s plot will revolve around a group of American tourists visiting Moscow when a deadly alien invasion breaks out. Thirlby will play a trust fund girl in the group who teams up with the others to fight back against the vicious extra-terrestrials.
Although Bekmambetov himself won’t be the head honcho of this show he will use his own personal facilities in Moscow for shooting and special effects purposes. Say what you will about the quality of his previous films, the man has a knack for gorgeous visuals and inventive action sequences. So, hopefully, that will carry over here to some degree as well.
In addition to The Darkest Hour, Mr. Bekmambetov will re-team with his fellow 9 producer Tim Burton to produce the aptly named Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. There’s also of course the possibility that he’ll begin shooting Wanted 2 sometime in the near future, even with Angelina Jolie’s recent moves to the contrary (though, as you’ll note, that’s up in the air for the time being).
The Darkest Hour will begin production this summer with likely either a late 2010 or Summer 2011 release date in mind.
