Aldis Hodge is set to star in ‘The Invisible Man’ reboot.
The 32-year-old actor – who is best known for his roles in TNT series ‘Leverage’ and for playing rapper MC Ren in the 2015 NWA biopic ‘Straight Outta Compton’ – is on board for an unknown part in the remake of Universal’s 1933 movie, which is based on the novel of the same name by H. G. Wells.
Elisabeth Moss will also star in the project and is believed to be playing Flora Cranley, the love interest of the character Dr. Jack Griffin who becomes invisible after a series of scientific tests.
Details of the project are being kept under wraps for now but it is known that Leigh Whannell – who helmed ‘Upgrade’ and ‘Saw’ – is directing the project which is part of Universal’s ‘Dark Universe’ collection of films. The shared universe was kicked off by 2017’s ‘The Mummy’.
Johnny Depp was originally due to play Dr. Griffin, but the movie is pushing forward without the 55-year-old star’s involvement.
The film has suffered from major setbacks after Ed Solomon stepped down from writing the reboot last year due to creative differences with the studio.
He previously said: "At the end of the day, I think Universal and I had a different idea of what the movie was gonna be. We began thinking that our notions would meld, and I should’ve listened more closely to what they really were wanting. I think Universal has had to come to a kind of reckoning of, ‘What are we doing with the ‘Dark Universe’?’ And, ‘What is our real intention with it?’ And I thinking they’re re-configuring it now, which I think is probably good. So I’m not working on it."
Universal Studios made its name with the Universal Monsters movies which began in the 1920s with Lon Chaney’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. The creature features continued to be popular with audiences for the next three decades with ‘Dracula’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘The Mummy’, ‘The Wolf Man’ and ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ all being major hits whilst making household names of Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney Jr. and Boris Karloff.
The ‘Dark Universe’ was due to continue with a ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ remake with Angelina Jolie in the title role but that project was put on hold after Alex Kurtzman – who helmed and co-wrote the Tom Cruise led reboot of ‘The Mummy’, which was the starting point for the connected series of movies – and co-producer Chris Morgan stepped away from the entire multiverse.
‘The Invisible Man’ is now the next film in the series.