Even if it wasn't one of the best new TV series of 2011 (perhaps beat only by "Homeland"), "Game of Thrones" would have been manna from heaven for casting directors: a cast of attractive young stars, who get to show their action and acting chops, pre-picked by one of the best in the business Nina Gold, who have half the year free, and given the show's body count, will likely be free in a year or two anyway. Since the first season debuted on HBO last year, its stars have cropped up consistently in casting announcements, from Kit Harington landing the lead in the since-canceled "Arthur and Lancelot" (ahead of co-star Richard Madden), Emilia Clarke in "Spike Island" and "Overdrive" and Alfie Allen in "Confine" to Lena Headey in "Dredd" and Sean Bean in "Pan."
And now one more of the show's leads has landed another gig, arguably the biggest yet for any of his co-stars. According to Deadline, Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jamie Lannister, a character who remains sympathetic despite fucking his sister and throwing a child out of a tall window in THE FIRST EPISODE, has signed on to support Tom Cruise in Universal's sci-fi actioner "Oblivion."
Directed by "Tron: Legacy" helmer Joseph Kosinski, and based on his own graphic novel, the film stars Cruise as a drone repairman in a post-apocalyptic future where Earth has become uninhabitable and overrun with alien Scavengers, who encounters a mysterious woman who changes everything. Coster-Waldau, whose early credits include "Black Hawk Down" and "Wimbledon," and who will next appear in Norwegian thriller "Headhunters" and the Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror "Mama," opposite Jessica Chastain, will play Sykes, a combat-scarred technology and weapons expert.
The film's been rounding out its supporting cast in recent weeks, with Olga Kurylenko replacing the originally cast Chastain as Cruise's wife, Andrea Riseborough as the mystery woman and Morgan Freeman in an unnamed role. While Kosinski didn't display much in the way of storytelling abilities on "Tron: Legacy," this one has a decent cast, and a script by Oscar-winner William Monahan ("The Departed") and Karl Gajdusek ("Trespass"), which bodes a little better (especially with Michael Arndt doing the final polish). Filming starts next month in Louisiana, and it'll hit theaters on July 19th, 2013, while you can next see Coster-Waldau on screens when "Game of Thrones" returns for its second season on April 1st.
