UPDATE: Variety reports that Kurt Russell, hot off a supporting turn in Furious 7, is also circling a role.
ORIGINAL: Summit’s Deepwater Horizon, about the 2010 BP oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that took the lives of 11 people and spilled oil into the ocean for a horrific 87 days, got a whole lot less interesting when A Most Violent Year director J.C. Chandor exited and was replaced by Battleship helmer Peter Berg, but the talent that’s being assembled in front of the camera for the pic is undeniably exciting. Mark Wahlberg and Jane the Virgin breakout Gina Rodriguez are already attached, and now The Maze Runner star Dylan O’Brien is in talks for a major role.
O’Brien, who first hit it big with the teen crowd back in 2011 with the hit MTV series Teen Wolf (now gearing up for its fifth season), has been a star on the rise since his dystopian YA adaptation The Maze Runner opened to $32.5 million last September, ultimately grossing $340 million worldwide and launching a new franchise for 20th Century Fox. Deepwater Horizon is the most high-brow project he’s been associated with to date. Should the actor come aboard, he’ll play Caleb Holloway, the youngest crew member who survives the explosion but who is traumatized and distraught over the loss of his co-workers.
Berg, who previously worked with Wahlberg on Lone Survivor, is working from a script by Matthew Michael Carnahan (The Kingdom). The project is being eyed as a potential awards contender, though Berg taking the reins suggests a potential to take a more blockbuster route.
Deepwater Horizon will open on September 30th, 2016.
