A couple weeks ago, we reported on rumours that Guillermo Del Toro was interested in Idris Elba for his robots-vs-aliens flick, Pacific Rim. Now that’s been confirmed, with Deadline reporting that Elba has now closed his deal for the film and will definitely be on set when it starts shooting in November.
Interestingly, Elba’s role was originally created with Tom Cruise in mind. However after At The Mountains Of Madness (which was also supposed to star Cruise) fell apart and Del Toro moved Pacific Rim forward, Tom decided to commit to a different sci-fi project, Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion.
Pacific Rim revolves around humanity’s fight against an other-worldly menace that threatens to devour the planet. The only way for us to fight back is to create massive human-controlled robots. The film is influenced by ‘mecha’ a subgenre popular in Japanimation, which sees people piloting enormous human or animal shaped robots (think Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but not rubbish).
Charlie Hunnam has the lead male role, while Charlie Day has also signed on as a professor. It’s due in cinemas Summer 2013.