At one point Tom Cruise was circling the lead role, but Guillermo del Toro has, instead, cast Idris Elba as Sensi, a black Briton and commanding officer of Charlie Hunnam’s character, in his forthcoming Pacific Rim. It is said the role was being retooled when Cruise became interested, but has now likely reverted back to its original character design.
Elba was also under consideration for the title role in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, but Mike Fleming at Deadline reports it is looking more and more likely that role will go to Jamie Foxx after Tarantino went through a long and fruitless dance with Will Smith. Elba is currently filming Prometheus and has a role in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance on the way.
As for Pacific Rim, the script was written by Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans) and is described as a creature feature set in the near future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth. The planet must band together and use highly advanced technology to eradicate the growing menace. Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) will co-star.
It is expected this will be del Toro’s next film with a shoot planned for later this year. After working on The Hobbit for a couple of years and finally deciding not to direct that film, del Toro lost a lot of ground as the last film he directed was Hellboy 2: The Golden Army back in 2008. Now he has a lot of fires burning, but it does appear he has finally settled on a project. However, that hasn’t stopped him from talking about potentially taking on more work.
In speaking with the Los Angeles Times, del Toro revealed he’d be interested in tackling Disney’s revisionist take on Maleficent, the evil queen in the 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty. The film is expected to tell the classic fairy tale from the point of view of the self-proclaimed “Mistress of All Evil” and Angelina Jolie has long been attached to play the lead role.
“Let me put it this way,” del Toro said, “If they ask I’ll take the meeting.”
Speaking further on the subject he said, “I think Maleficent’s dragon is the only design with the wings separate from the front legs, the only time that design has ever worked. And let me tell you how much of a fan I am. I have a collection of over two or three dozen Maleficent figures, some of them four or five feet tall. I own about 10 pieces of conceptual art from Sleeping Beauty that include the dragon and a lot more pieces that are just from Sleeping Beauty. It’s one of my three favorite Disney films. I would love to.”
Tim Burton was once attached to the project and since then names such as David O. Russell (The Fighter) and Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) have cropped up, but the position is still empty.
As for del Toro, we recently learned he most likely won’t make Hellboy 3, but as far as other projects on the horizon are concerned you can take your pick as everything from The Haunted Mansion to Drood and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde remain a possibility. And there is also his baby, At the Mountains of Madness based on H.P. Lovecraft’s novel, which almost found its way into production before Universal pulled out due to budgetary concerns. Perhaps is Pacific Rim performs well del Toro will get his chance at that project, or perhaps we’ll soon learn just how big an error it was pulling out of directing The Hobbit considering production on that film is already underway and one of its two parts could be in theaters before del Toro releases his next film.
Thanks to The Playlist whose reporting also helped contribute to this post.
