Hugh Jackman Joins Neill Blomkamp's CHAPPIE Film

ScreenDaily.com reports that Hugh Jackman, set to receive the Zurich Film FestivAl Golden Icon Award tonight, revealed at a PRISONERS press conference that he has signed on for Neill Blomkamp's upcoming sci-fi film CHAPPIE, with script by Terri Tatchell. The project will begin filming in Johannesburg at the beginning of next year.

Read the original report here.

CHAPPIE is based on Blomkamp's previous short film called TETRA VAAL, a fictional ad for a robotic police force in the slums of South Africa.

Jackman joins Sharlto Copley, who has already signed on to play a police robot, as well as South African rappers Ninja and Yolandi Visser, who will play two gangsters who steal the robot for their own nefarious purposes. As of mid-summer, Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) was also rumored to be in talks for CHAPPIE.

Blomkamp, who also directed District 9, just released Elysium in August.

Jackman is currently starring in Prisoners alongside Jake Gyllenhaal. Other upcoming big screen projects include X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Greatest Showman on Earth. He recently starred in The Wolverine and the Oscar-nominated movie adaptation of Les Miserables.

Jackman has appeared on Broadway in Hugh Jackman, Back on Broadway, A Steady Rain and The Boy From Oz -- for which he won the 2004 Tony Award -- as well as off-Broadway's Carousel. In 2012, Jackman was honored with a Tony Award Special Award for Extraordinary Contribution to the Theatre Community.

His new musical Houdini is headed to Broadway hopefully "within a year or 18 months", according to a report by the Daily Mail. ScreenDaily.com writes that Jackman will make a decision on Houdini "in about a month."

Photo Credit: REX USA/Rob Latour//Picture Perfect

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