It shouldn’t come as too much surprise that director Neill Blomkamp has cast Sharlto Copley in his upcoming Elysium. After all they’re longtime friends, and it was Blomkampp who plucked Copley from obscurity – the A-Team star didn’t even have any particular desire to be an actor at the time – for District 9.
There’s no news on who Copley might play in the movie. Indeed there’s not a huge amount of info available on the film at all, other than Deadline’s report that it’s ‘set in the far future on another planet and, like District 9, is filled with many sociopolitical ideas wrapped up inside a Hollywood action film’.
Blomkampp is currently is the rare position of having signed a deal with an independent company to be able to make any movie he wants and have complete control over it, as long as the budget isn’t too enormous. That allows him to take a few risks with Elysium, and while he’s got the financing, he’s currently attempting to find a distributor, apparently packaging a graphic novel in with the film. There’s plenty of interest all over Hollywood, although no distribution deal has yet been signed.
As yet Copley is the only person cast, but they’re apparently looking to fill the other roles soon.