Irishman Chris O’Dowd, who shot to fame through roles in The IT Crowd and Bridesmaids, has closed a deal to star in upcoming Bad Robot sci-fi pic God Particle.
The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop, revealing that O’Dowd is now bound for the stars alongside David Oyelowo, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Daniel Bruhl and The Night Manager‘s Elizabeth Debicki. John Krasinski, meanwhile, is no longer involved in the project, with O’Dowd now set to pick up the torch in place of Krasinski as an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.
Flanked by a crack team of scientists, God Particle takes a sharp turn into deep science fiction when the crew members on board the ISS make a “terrifying discovery that challenges everything they know about the fabric of reality, as they desperately fight for survival.”
Given the evocative title, it seems a safe bet that the movie – one to be directed by Julius Onah (The Girl Is in Trouble) – centers on a particle accelerator test gone awry. Either that or Neil DeGrasse Tyson will school Onah’s sophomore feature in the finer details of particle physics via Twitter. There’s also the minute possibility that, as this is a Bad Robot movie produced by J.J. Abrams, God Particle will in some way tie into the studio’s overarching Cloverfield universe, but we digress. With a strong ensemble now on board, Onah’s feature joins a list of exciting sci-fi tentpoles that includes Passengers and The Something.
God Particle has been penciled in for a release on February 24, 2017.