Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin and Guy Pearce have joined the cast of Ridley Scott’s “The Dog Stars,” with Jacob Elordi starring as the lead. Production is scheduled to begin at the end of April in Italy (via Deadline).
That’s a very attractive cast assembled by Scott. Pearce is coming off an Oscar nomination (“The Brutalist”). Brolin, a consummate actor, tends to be very picky with the roles he selects. Qualley is very hot these days, having recently starred in “The Substance.”
Scott’s ‘Dog Stars’ was supposed to have Paul Mescal in the lead role, but the actor had to drop out due to his commitment with Sam Mendes’ ‘Beatles’ movies. Elordi soon after came in to replace him.
Scott’s upcoming adaptation of Peter Heller’s acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel will have Elordi playing Hig, a widowed pilot and one of the few survivors in a world devastated by a global pandemic. Hig leads a solitary existence in an airplane hangar, with only his dog and a gruff gunman for company. His quiet life is suddenly disrupted when he intercepts a mysterious transmission on his Cessna radio, sparking a journey to uncover its origin.
Scott is directing a screenplay written by Mark L. Smith (“Twisters,” “The Revenant”). Elordi is also supposed to shoot the final season of HBO’s “Euphoria” and Warner Bros.’ “Wuthering Heights” in the spring — not sure how that’s going to work out, but I bet he’ll only be in a handful of ‘Euphoria” episodes.
Scott’s last two films were “Napoleon” and “Gladiator II,” — ‘Dog Stars’ will be a much welcome return to more intimate and less bloated filmmaking for the 87-year-old director; his last four films clocked in at over 150 minutes.
Still no word yet on whether Scott’s ‘Bee Gees’ biopic is happening, but as far as we’ve heard, and this came directly from Scott himself, he was trying to get Paramount to pay him more money to direct that film (“I’m f*cking good”).