I wonder how many actual museum lines are longer than the line-up of cast members currently being assembled for Shawn Levy’s upcoming third film in the ridiculously popular Night at the Museum franchise. Actor Ben Kingsley is no stranger to popping into the third film of a series, having starred in last year’s megablockbuster Iron Man 3, and he’s just signed on for Night at the Museum 3, which will probably have a lame subtitle like Catastrophe with British People or Getting’ Crazy up in London.
A native of Yorkshire, England, Kingsley should feel somewhat close to home in the film’s U.K. setting, only he won’t be playing an Englishman at all, but rather an Egyptian. I guess it’s better than getting a purebred white guy to play one, but not by much. For a little more detail, Deadline reports he’ll play a daunting pharaoh who turns from display to free man when someone revives him using a magical tablet (the stone kind). People will never learn; perhaps we should teach them by tablet (the electronic kind). It doesn’t say specifically whether or not he’s the antagonist, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him yelling harshly at people to do his bidding with whips-a-flying.
This addition comes two weeks after Rebel Wilson joined the cast, which also includes the returning Ben Stiller, Robin Williams and Ricky Gervais, along with Bad Words’s Rachael Harris, Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens, Patrick Gallagher (Endgame), and Skyler Gisondo (The Amazing Spider-Man). While the plotline is being kept under glass case and alarm, the screenplay was written once again by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, who were joined by Dinner for Schmucks screenwriters David Guion and Michael Handelman.
Kingsley has been everywhere as of late, starring in six movies in 2013 alone. Beyond his supervillain turn, he was also a headliner in the underwhelming adaptation of the sci-fi classic Ender’s Game. He will be just as busy in 2014, if not more so. Beyond the Mandarin Marvel One-Shot, he’s starring in Ridley Scott’s religious epic Exodus, Brad Anderson’s spooky thriller Eliza Graves, Jon Wright’s sci-fi adventure Our Robot Overlords, Tarsem Singh’s consciousness-switching thriller Selfless and he’ll voice a stop-motion character in The Boxtrolls. If you add up the grosses of all of Kingsley’s movies in 2013 and 2014, I’m betting he’d be one of the top earners.
After all, Iron Man 3 took in over $1.2 billion globally, and while Kingsley might not have been the biggest draw for audiences, he’s definitely what they were talking about when they left the theater. Check out his spoiler-heavy best scene below. I repeat, this clip is all spoilers, so don’t watch it if you haven’t seen Iron Man 3.
