When I talked to David Dobkin back in August, we discussed his upcoming project, a drama based on the King Arthur legend. While the filmmaker has spent most of his career directing comedies, like Wedding Crashers, Fred Claus and this past summer's The Change Up, he said that he "came to Hollywood to make Star Wars." Now it seems he has found his Han Solo.
THR is reporting that Joel Kinnaman, the Swedish actor best known in America for his portrayal of Stephen Holder in the AMC series The Killing, has officially landed the role of Lancelot in Dobkins' Arthur & Lancelot. The movie is just one of many recently landed for the actor, who got is big break in the hit Swedish film Snabba Cash, directed by Daniel Espinosa. Kinnaman worked with Espinosa again in the filmmaker's American debut, Safe House (with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds) and has also completed work on Snabba Cash 2.
The next step is finding an actor to play Arthur, which Kinnaman will be playing an important role in. According to the trade, the performer will be doing chemistry reads with the potential cast members. Actors up for the part include Kit Harrington (Game of Thrones), Sam Claflin (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Dominic Cooper (The Devil's Double), Hans Matheson (Sherlock Holmes), Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe), Ben Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and Liam Hemsworth (The Last Song).
What's interesting about this casting is that when I spoke with Dobkin this summer he said they would likely be going with unknowns and an all British cast. Kinnaman may not be an A-lister just yet, but he is known and he's definitely not British. I guess something changed along the way.
