The Social Network star Armie Hammer hasn't quite made his way to the A-list just yet, but he's certainly doing a great job of finding projects that allow him to work with the biggest stars in the world. This summer we'll see him ride alongside Johnny Depp in Gore Verbinski's long-awaited The Lone Ranger, and now the up-and-coming actor has found a role opposite Tom Cruise.
Following news from last month that the Mission: Impossible star would be playing Napoleon Solo in the Guy Ritchie-directed adaptation of the television series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Hammer is now attached to play Soviet agent Illya Kuryakin, Solo's partner, in the film. The project has been in development for years now and was originally going to be directed by Steven Soderbergh, but he dropped it last November, leaving Ritchie to pick it up.
Based on the 1960s series that starred Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, the spy adventure follows the agents of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.) as they fight the forces of the evil organization THRUSH.
My first thought after hearing this casting news? It's going to be really hard to get these two leads in frame together. For an action star, Cruise is notoriously short, standing at a reported 5'7", while Hammer typically towers over his co-stars at 6'5". Here's betting that Ritchie either has them sitting down whenever they have to be in the same shot. Either that or the production might have to invest in an extra high pair of lifts...or perhaps stilts.
