Wes Bentley, still most famous for his monologue about that plastic bag in American Beauty, is lining up a significant enough stream of blockbusters that we might start remembering him for something else. Following up on his appearance as Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games last year, Bentley has now booked a role in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar; according to The Hollywood Reporter, he's the final member of the cast to get locked in place.
Anonymous insiders describe the part as "a meaty supporting role," but as with everything else on this project, the details are being kept completely secret. Everything we know about Interstellar has come through drips and drabs in casting announcements, and the only thing we really know is that it's about a group of space explorers traveling through a wormhole to another dimension. Time travel, as you might guess, also gets involved. Cal Tech physicist Kip Thorne is on board as a consultant, and word is that Nolan and his brother Jonathan based the script on Thorne's work-- though, of course, specifics about that are hard to come by, and probably hard to understand for us laymen anyway.
True to Nolan form, Bentley is joining a cast that's already stacked with big names and bigger talents. Nolan is reuniting with Dark Knight Rises stars Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway, working for the first time with shirtless mastermind Matthew McConaughey, Casey Affleck and general legend John Lithgow, and of course bringing the "braaaaaaaaaaangh"s of composer Hans Zimmer back into the fold. Rounding out the cast there's Topher Grace, Ellen Burstyn, Bill Irwin, and kid actors Timothee Chalamet and Mackenzie Foy. How is there possibly room for this many people on a spaceship? Well, Nolan's not going to tell you anyway, so don't even bother asking.
Interstellar, which we may eventually stop confusing with Wally Pfister's Transcendence, is gearing up for production in time for November 7 release next year. There may be a ton of buzz around Nolan having a hand in the Batman-Superman team-up, but come on-- one of the most rigorous filmmakers working with large budgets is back to telling original stories! And he won't even tell us what it's about! It may make writing articles like this one harder, but it's more than enough reason to celebrate.
