Ex Machina was a huge career booster for Alicia Vikander, what with the rave reviews and consistent success coming her way after her pivotal role in Alex Garland's directorial debut. So naturally, as with any actor who has become a hot commodity, she's got some prime projects lined up for her immediate future. The latest of which will be quite the test of her career, as her role in The Circle - based on the novel by Dave Eggers - will pit her skills and character against that of a worldwide icon, again in both the on and off screen world. That icon is Mr. Tom Hanks himself.
The Hollywood Reporter has broken the scoop from the pre Cannes Film Festival press rounds, as the producing partners behind The Circle are looking to shop the film that Hanks himself started the ball rolling on back in last December. The story follows a tech worker named Mae Holland, who winds up taking a gig at the world’s biggest internet company, called The Circle. Her ambition drives her to make her work at the company a bigger and bigger part of her life, but soon everything else begins to fade into the background – leading to a mysterious story of suspense.
Vikander will obviously be playing the role of Mae, while Hanks will be filling in the role of one of the book's "Three Wise Men," the three men who start the book's fictional and titular company. Reading the basic summary of this book, it sounds as if the plot is going to basically detail what would happen if the Google campus was a place of corporate intrigue and after hours liaisons between colleagues, mixed in with a parable on the ethics of the ever invasive phenomenon known as social media. Of course, who's to say the real Google isn't anything like that to begin with?
Teaming up a legend like Tom Hanks, who's racking up his second Dave Egger's adaptation with The Circle, with a rising talent like Alicia Vikander, is presumably as exciting a prospect for the audience that plans on watching it as it is for the actors themselves. Though it does add a bit of freakiness to the mix if you consider this an unofficial companion to Ex Machina, as Vikander has had some previous experience with a tech company run by a "charismatic man" in that very film. Considering her 2015 roster, which has her appearing in everything from summer blockbusters like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to awards hopefuls like The Danish Girl, The Circle sounds like a natural project for Vikander to add to her CV.
The Circle has no production start or release date in mind, but does have a director in The Spectacular Now's James Ponsolt, which only further enhances this film's limited but impressive pedigree. As the project develops, you can bet we'll be broadcasting updates as they occur.
