In August, we’re going to see veteran filmmaker Ridley Scott return to the big screen with his latest sci-fi feature, “The Dog Stars,” which is based on Peter Heller‘s 2012 novel that was adapted by screenwriter Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant”), and the director is sharing his thoughts on the post-apocalypse genre, and revealed that he originally thought that he was going to reunite with “Gladiator II” actor Paul Mescal in the lead role before it utliamtely went to recent Oscar-nominee Jacob Elordi (“Frankenstein”) when the Sam Mendes-helmed “Beatles” biopic ended that plan (Mescal playing Paul McCartney).
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“We’re doing too many end-of-the-world stories,” Scott told Empire Magazine in a recently revealed interview for the new release coming later in the summer. “This is not ‘The Road.’ I did not want to do ‘World War Z‘ again; no zombies, please. I thought, “What the f*** am I gonna do here?’…There’s a lot of optimism within the context of the story, and the bottom line is, people do need people.” And, no, the action sequences in “The Dog Stars” were no issue for the elder director (still making big event films at 88 years old) as he boasts about his action chops. “No action scene is challenging for me, dude, are you f***ing kidding? It’s easy.”
“I had a good time doing [‘Gladiator II’] with Paul [Mescal], and from that I thought it was going to be him,” Scott said of nearly reuniting with Mescal and how he landed on Elordi. “But then he got hooked into playing Paul McCartney, and I’m his friend, so I’m not going to complain. I’d had my eye on Jacob for a while anyway…His background is a farm lad. He can drive tractors, he’s great with dogs, and he’s a very [outdoorsy], practical kind of guy. I met with him, and that was it.”
An official synopsis for the upcoming flick:
A riveting, epic thriller set in a world where survival is instinct, but humanity is a choice. Scott tells the story of Hig (Elordi), a young pilot who, together with a military survivalist, Bangley (Brolin), has carved out an efficient but isolated homestead in a brutal post-apocalyptic world until a mysterious radio transmission spurs Hig to venture into the unknown in search of the hope and humanity he still believes exists.
A neat sliding doors moment, but you can’t be all that surprised that Scott went after another talented actor on the rise (cast before he nabbed an Oscar nomination). Elordi is joined by Josh Brolin, Margaret Qualley, Benedict Wong, Allison Janney, and Guy Pierce in the anticipated genre film coming from 20th Century Studios, as “The Dog Stars” will grace screens on August 28.
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