Captain America may not have had much to do inAvengers: Infinity War, butChris Evansis lining up a starring role of a different sort. It was announced today that the actor will lead a new disaster thriller calledGreenland, which hails fromDistrict 9andElysiumfilmmakerNeill Blomkamp. While full plot details are under wraps, the film is described as the story of one family’s fight for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster. Given Blomkamp’s penchant for tackling social issues and that title, one wonders if this story has something to do with the disastrous effects of climate change.
Thunder Road Pictures’Basil Iwanyk(Sicario) is producing the new film, which has Anton onboard to co-finance with Riverstone Pictures. STX International is handling international distribution, while domestic distribution rights are currently being shopped at the Cannes Film Festival.
Evans most recently wrapped the historical thrillerThe Red Sea Diving ResortfromPrisoners of WarcreatorGideon Raffand is currently starring on Broadway in the playLobby Hero. The actor’s screentime inInfinity Warwas fairly limited, but the film’s writers promise a much meatier Cap story in next May’sAvengers 4—which may or may not be Evans’ final go-around with the MCU.
Blomkamp, meanwhile, has been noodling around with a few very different kinds of projects in the wake of his disappointing robot filmChappie. The filmmakerattempted to get a newAlienfilmoff the ground, butRidley Scottwas none too pleased and essentiallygot Fox to halt developmenton Blomkamp’sAlienssequel while he madeAlien: Covenant. Blomkamp’s movie would have ignored the events of the otherAlienfilms and brought backSigourney WeaverandMichael Biehn, but the project is now pretty much dead.
Then Blomkamp formed his own independent film studioOats Studios, which released a series of short films as essentially test balloons to see which stories fans would want to see expanded into a feature-length film. Blomkamp attempted to crowdfund the financing for a feature based on his shortFirebase, but the effort didn’t raise enough money to make that a reality.
It doesn’t appear that Oats Studios is involved withGreenlandat all, so it’ll be interesting to see what becomes of this. In some ways, Blomkamp has never really lived up to the promise of his debut featureDistrict 9—ElysiumandChappietraffic in the same kind of aesthetic and social issues but less successfully. What I’d really like to see is a total aesthetic shift from Blomkamp, something completely different than what he’s done before. Here’s hopingGreenlandis that.
