After giving his usual storming, F-bomb-laden performance at Comic-Con, Guillermo del Toro is back at work preparing to shoot massive monster movie Pacific Rim. And now he’s locked in Rob Kazinsky to co-star, with Willem Dafoe also now in early talks to sign on.
Let’s deal with Kazinsky first, shall we? You might best know him as the former Dream Team/Eastenders star who got a call up to the big leagues when he was cast in the two Hobbit films. Sadly, he had to drop out for personal reasons, but now it’s possible that Peter Jackson – who had been hoping del Toro would direct the Tolkien films – put in a good word with his pal about the actor. He’s locked in to play one of the humans battling big beasts alongside Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Rinko Kikuchi and recent addition Max Martini.
Dafoe, meanwhile, is wanted for the role of a rogue scientist who has a particular expertise relating to the massive, marauding monsters. The film will find the extraterrestrial terrors destroying cities on Earth before huge, piloted robots can be built to combat them.
Travis Beacham wrote the script, which del Toro will start shooting in the autumn.