'Kidulthood' Actor Joins Fox's 'Maze Runner' (Exclusive)

Courtesy of Paradigm

Aml Ameen

British actor Aml Ameen has landed a role in The Maze Runner, Fox’s adaptation of the sci-fi YA novel by James Dashner. Wes Ball is directing the project, with Temple Hill Entertainment and the Gotham Group producing.

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The story is set in a postapocalyptic era in which a boy who remembers only his first name wakes up in a community packed with boys called the Glade, which is surrounded by a huge maze. The boys must unlock the secrets of the maze in order to gain their freedom.

Will Poulter, who starred in Son of Rambow, already has been cast as Thomas, the new boy, while Game of Thrones actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster is in negotiations for a role as well.

Ameen will play Alby, the honorable but stern leader of the Gladers.

The movie, budgeted in the $25 million to $30 million range, will shoot in the spring in Louisiana.

Ameen was a lead in the British cult classic film Kidulthood and the popular British TV series The Bill. He next appears as the younger version of Forest Whitaker's character in Lee Daniels' The Butler.

Ameen is repped by Paradigm, Sanders Armstrong Caserta Management and attorney Dave Feldman.