Fresh off her strong performance in The Help, Jessica Chastain has nabbed the female lead opposite Tom Cruise in Universal’s untitled science fiction project being directed by Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski.
Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark will produce through Chernin Entertainment alongside Barry Levine.
PHOTOS: Jessica Chastain, Elizabeth Olsen Pose for THR
The project, formerly known as Oblivion and Horizons, is a love story taking place in an apocalyptic future where most of the population lives in clouds since the Earth is no longer habitable. A Earthbound repairman whose job it is to work on drones that fight alien life forms meets a woman who forces him to question his world view.
Chastain will play Cruise’s lover and partner, who tethers him to the world above the clouds while he’s doing repairwork. She becomes none-too-happy when she discovers he has fallen for anther woman.
Jesse Berger and Dave Morrison are executive producing. Peter Cramer and Sara Scott are overseeing the project for the studio.
Chastain has been on a tear since nabbing the role of Brad Pitt’s wife in Terrence Mallick’s The Tree of Life. On top of being one of the standouts in DreamWorks’ hit drama Help, Chastain has Texas Killing Fields, with Sam Worthington and Chloe Moretz, and The Wettest County, with Shia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy, in the can.
