It's almost a year to the day since we shared the news that Aussie actor Jacob Elordi, star of Saltburn and Priscilla, would be replacing Andrew Gar
It’s almost a year to the day since we shared the news that Aussie actor Jacob Elordi, star of Saltburn and Priscilla, would be replacing Andrew Garfield in Guillermo Del Toro’s upcoming Frankenstein movie. And now, in what is perilously close to becoming an annual tradition, today brings with it news that Elordi is set to step in once again to replace the lead in a revered auteur’s next literary adaptation. Yes, per Variety‘s reporting, the in demand actor — soon to be seen in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights with Margot Robbie — is being eyed to replace Paul Mescal in Sir Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller Dog Stars.
As you may recall, back in November we shared news that Gladiator II director-muse duo Scott and Mescal were planning to reteam on Dog Stars, an adaptation of Peter Heller’s post-apocalyptic bestseller with a script hailing from The Revenant and Twisters scribe Mark L. Smith and Ali‘s Christopher Wilkinson. However, as you may also recall, just before Christmas Sir Ridders let slip that Mescal had been cast as Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes’ quartet of Beatles biopics, casting doubt over his potential involvement in the pandemic thriller. Now, with today’s Variety story, both Mescal’s McCartney casting and Scott’s need for a novel lead has seemingly been confirmed, with Elordi now in the frame to play Dog Stars‘ hero Hig, a civilian pilot who lives a lonely life in a Coloradan aircraft hangar with only a dog and gruff ex-marine Bangley for company. Should Elordi take the role, he’ll be at the centre of a plot that revolves around an enigmatic transmission that draws Hig out of self-imposed exile and attracts the attention of villainous scavengers the Reapers.
With Elordi already expected to work on both Euphoria Season 3 and Wuthering Heights in the first quarter of this year, there’s a degree of time sensitivity and potential schedule jiggery pokery (or should that be Hig-gery pokery?) to be negotiated if Scott wants to get cameras rolling in Spring, per his original plans. But if Scott does get his man and shooting starts as planned by Easter, then we can hopefully expect to see this one hit cinemas sometime next year. Here’s hoping whoever stars, and whenever it comes out, Dog Stars will wind up being the mutt’s nuts rather than the, er, dog’s dinner.
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