Update 06/08/12: Deadline reports that Benjamin Walker has won the co-starring role in "The Great Wall."
Originally published 06/04.12: So which unproven movie actor will join another untested thesp in a period movie about the the Great Wall Of China? That's right, this has all the ingredients of a SMASH HIT.
With "Man Of Steel" actor Henry Cavill already on board, and with producers presumably believing his career won't go Christopher Reeve or Brandon Routh after the Superman pic comes out next year, director Ed Zwick is now between "True Blood" star Alexander Skarsgard and POTUS/vampire killer Benjamin Walker for the co-starring role in "The Great Wall." We guess these guys are cheap which is why Legendary Pictures is rolling with this, but it seems no one has learned anything from the whole Taylor Kitsch debacle of 2012. Skarsgard is great on the HBO show, but his two big movies in the last while — "Battleship" and "Straw Dogs"– either undperformed or simply tanked. Meanwhile, does anyone give a shit about "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"? Box office disappointment reeks off of that one.
Anyway, Zwick co-wrote the script with his partner, Marshall Herskovitz which is based off a story, dreamed up by Legendary honcho Thomas Tull and "World War Z" author Max Brooks, that centers on two 15th century British warriors who stumble across the wall mid-construction, but soon realize that it's not just being built to keep out the Mongols, but something else entirely. We presume something supernatural. Whatever.
No word yet on when this might lens but it's being produced via Legendary East. [Deadline]
