Casting Round-Up with Dwayne Johnson, Liam Neeson & Alicia Vikander

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

DreamWorks has reportedly won a bidding war for a pitch from Jeremiah Friedman and Nick Palmer titled ALPHA SQUAD SEVEN, and Dwayne Johnson is attached to star in the project. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but the planned film has been described as a "four-quadrant action-comedy adventure set in space" and "the project is meant to act as a two-hander as well as launch a potential franchise." Johnson also shared some additional information on his new movie on his Instagram.

It's a big one. Excited to announce our partnership w/ DreamWorks & my long time producer Beau Flynn. I'll star in and produce (along w/ Flynn) ALPHA SQUAD 7 – a big sci-fi action comedy. Thank you DreamWorks CEO Michael Wright and the man himself – Steven Spielberg – for wanting to partner up and make something globally awesome for the fans. And as for the fans – can't wait to create these characters for y'all – handsome, charming, ass kicking, flawed and slightly cranky of a hero leading the one and only Alpha Squad into space. And he may bring along some bald dude named Rock.

Liam Neeson is in final talks to star in A WILLING PATRIOT, a terrorist-themed thriller from A FUNNY MAN and APPLAUSE director Martin Zandvliet. Neeson will play "a CIA agent who engages in an elaborate cat-and-mouse game with a sinister terrorist who's planning an imminent attack." And, of course, "he'll risk everything, including his own life, to stop his foe and avenge his mysterious past." Marc Butan's MadRiver Pictures is fully financing and producing the movie, and Jason Keller (who wrote the original script) is also attached to the project as a producer.

And finally, EX MACHINA actress Alicia Vikander has been cast in James Ponsoldt's (THE SPECTACULAR NOW) THE CIRCLE, and will star alongside Tom Hanks in the big screen adaptation of the Dave Eggers novel of the same name. Vikander will portray a "recent college graduate who lands a job at a powerful tech company called The Circle, which is co-owned by a charismatic man (Hanks)."

Full book description from Amazon:

When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.

Which of these films are you the most interested in checking out?