Awards-friendly NASA race drama Hidden Figures has recruited another cast member to its growing ensemble – Kirsten Dunst.
Deadline has the scoop, revealing that the actress now joins Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer and Taraji P. Henson in Ted Melfi’s (St. Vincent) feature film, shedding light on the forgotten pioneers of America’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration during the early 60s.
Lifted from the pages of Margot Lee Shetterly’s acclaimed novel, Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, Melfi’s period drama has set up shop at Fox 2000. In essence, it centers on the launch of the Friendship 7 vessel into orbit and, perhaps more importantly, the black men and women on the ground that helped make such a remarkable scientific feat possible in the first place.
Playing the roles of the unsung heroes are Octavia Spencer and Taraji P. Henson, with the latter stepping into the shoes of Johnson, a “brilliant African-American mathematician who, along with her colleagues Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson, served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history.” Flippantly referred to as the four “Colored Computers,” Hidden Figures still has a few more roles yet to be filled as it gears up for launch in 2017.
Kirsten Dunst, meanwhile, can next be seen opposite Michael Shannon in low-key sci-fi flick Midnight Special. It opens on March 18 following a run at this weekend’s SXSW.
