Fresh from playing a Superman villain in Hollywoodland (well, sorta), Bob Hoskins has signed on for a role in Neil The Descent Marshall’s next film Doomsday. Marshall’s been planning this one ever since his spelunking horror scared the bejesus out of everyone who saw it, back in 2005, but this is going to be scary with an actiony twist – more Dog Soldiers than The Descent by the sounds of it.
The plot takes place following the outbreak of a lethal and virulent virus in “a major country”. As hundreds of thousands die, the authorities brutally and totally quarantine the country to prevent the spread of the disease – dubbed ‘the Reaper’, naturally – worldwide. The walling off works for three decades – but now the Reaper is back, and so an “elite group of specialists”, led by Rhona Mitra’s Eden Sinclair, are sent in to bring something back for a cure. They have to battle through a landscape that has become “a waking nightmare” to bring back the magic ingredient to stop the spread of the disease. So essentially think **Resident Evil **but, we’re hoping, rather better.
Hoskins will play Bill Nelson, a career policeman-type, responsible for nominating Eden for the mission and following their progress. Adrian Lester and Alexander Siddig have also signed up, but the rest of the cast have worked with Marshall before. Dog Soldiers’ Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Chris Robson and Emma Cleasby are back, as are MyAnna Buring and Nora-Jane Noone of The Descent, and Leslie Simpson and Craig Conway from both films.
Filming is due to start on February 9 in South Africa and here in the UK. So that gives us a good few months before Marshall teaches us that Blue Oyster Cult were totally wrong – we really should fear the reaper after all.