Chappie, from Chappie. It was a weird movie.
Chris Evans, the actor known for turning Captain America into a wholesome, beautiful movie boy, is joining Neill Blomkamp to lead his next project, it was revealed today at the Cannes Film Market.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Evans has signed on to star in the film, titled Greenland, which is supposedly about “one family’s fight for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster.” It’s a slightly sideways genre move for Blomkamp, who has always comfortably worked in grimy, messy scifi worlds, from the apartheid metaphor of District Nine to abortive work in the war-torn Halo universe.
For Evans, this is undoubtedly a move to cement his status as a leading man outside of his role as Steve Rogers. And if the MCU, with its cities torn off the ground and galactic tyrants, is preparation for anything, it’s for gawking at disasters.
Blomkamp’s last full-length film was the much-maligned Chappie, about a police robot who develops feelings. With Evans in the lead, Greenland could be a comeback for the creator, whose plans to make an Alien movie famously fell through last year. Principle photography is planned for the fourth quarter of 2018.