Things are looking good for Viola Davis. Having snagged the SAG Award for her turn in "The Help," barring a late arrival from the Meryl Streep Train, in a few weeks, the actress will land her first Oscar win. At least that's what we hope. But while we wait to see how that plays out, Davis is using her awards season bank a couple of movies and they are both as different as it gets.
First up, she's going the crew for the sci-fi tentpole "Ender's Game." Set to be directed by Gavin Hood (shudder), the long developing big screen take on the classic novel by Orson Scott Card. Set in the future, the story finds the Earth at war with an insectoid race named the Formics, and follows Ender, one of a group of children being trained to be military commanders. She joins an impressive roster of young and veteran talent with Asa Butterfield, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley and Harrison Ford all on board. And she'll be taking a solid role here, playing a psyschologist who oversees the children who are being trained, and develops games to test their skills. Filming kicks off soon with a March 15, 2013 release all set to go.
Once she's done that, she'll be keeping in the spirit of young adult fare, as she is set to star in Warner Bros. and Alcon's "Beautiful Creatures." Based on the first book in the best selling YA series by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia, and adapted and directed by Richard LaGravenese ("Water For Elephants," "P.S. I Love You") the story follows two teens — Lena, who posses some kind of secret supernatural gift and Ethan, the boy who loves her — and follows their journey to confront a curse that has plagued her family. Davis will play a librariarn and close friend of Ethan's dead mother, who cares and protects the child as if it were her own. There are already three novels in the series so WB is clearly thinking franchise. No word yet on when this will roll, but the casting is off to a good start. [Variety]
"…who cares and protects the child as if it were her own…" Hhmmm, that sounds familiar.
"Having snagged the SAG Award for her turn in "The Help," barring a late arrival from the Meryl Streep Train, in a few weeks, the actress will land her first Oscar win. At least that's what we hope. " …….. you gotta be effin kidding me here with this comment guys, come on. Davis' turn in The Help doesn't come close to the frightening transformation Streep displays in The Iron Lady. It's incomparable, and if Davis really does win (Streep isn't out of the picture just yet thankfully) it will be a huge injustice because Streep gives the best performance of the year, male or female. And now with these upcoming roles Viola Davis will hopefully stop playing the "it's so hard for black women to get a job in Hollywood" sympathy card. Jesus, Meryl better win her third Oscar it's getting completely ridiculous at this point if she doesn't.
Lena not Luna 🙂
**Lena
I'm not happy with this. Viola will be playing Aunt Marion…totally wrong…Marion isn't colored, but Alma is. Viola would make a GREAT Alma. I'm confused on why you would mess with the book. It's great as it is…but this is why movies are horrendously butchered when they are adapted from the book.
It's Lena not Luna.
Can't remember that character from the book…