‘Tenet’ Star John David Washington And ‘Rogue One’ Director Gareth Edwards Teaming Up For New Science Fiction Film
John David Washingtonis on such a hot streak of movie roles that you’d need a temporal pincer movement to keep up. TheTenetandMalcom & Marieactor has signed on to star in the next movie directed byRogue One: A Star Wars StoryandGodzillafilmmakerGareth Edwards.
Deadline reports that John David Washington is reuniting with New Regency, which produced the David O. Russell film that Washington recently shot, forTrue Love, a science-fiction movie from Gareth Edwards. Edwards writes and directsTrue Love, which is described as a “near future sci-fi story.” No other details are provided of the plot. Kiri Hart will serve as a producer on the project along with Edwards. New Regency will produce and finance the film.
Washington’s a busy guy lately. After earning Golden Globe and SAG nominations for his breakout performance in Spike Lee’s 2018 crime filmBlacKkKlansman, Washington has been in hot demand as a new Hollywood leading man (his relation to his father, Denzel Washington, probably didn’t hurt either). In the past year, Washington starred in the Christopher Nolan sci-fi tentpoleTenet, before making another awards season bid with the Netflix black-and-white dramaMalcolm & Marie. He’s also set to star opposite Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and a whole slew of A-list actors in David O. Russell’s next film.
As for Edwards, his career has been relatively quiet since helming 2016’sRogue One: A Star Wars Story. The film was mired in behind-the-scenes issues, with Tony Gilroy stepping in forextensive reshootswhich ended up racking theRogue One’s production budget to least $200 million, making it one of the most expensive films ever made. Still,Rogue Oneended up grossing $1 billion worldwide, and Edwards still has the box office success of 2014’sGodzillaunder his belt – the Legendary MonsterVerse movie made $524 million globally.
Deadline reports that Edwards “had been developing several projects, wanting to make sure his next project was the right one before committing.” Edwards finally committed toTrue Lovelast year, which was swiftly picked up by New Regency after the package hit the market.
To be honest, I’m not totally convinced by Washington as a leading man. Whatever charisma he showed inBlacKkKlansmanseemed to be curiously missing inTenet, even though Washington proved himself to be a talented physical performer. That said, sci-fi might be the best home for Washington, and maybe he’ll prove that he does have those leading-man chops withTrue Love.
