One thing that director Chris Sanders has shown throughout his career is an interest and an ability to tell compelling stories of man and beast. He did it as co-director of Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, and he will next bring that talent to perhaps the most beloved story of the bond between man and animal of all. Chris Sanders directs the latest cinematic adaptation of Jack London’s iconic literary classic The Call of the Wild for the newly dubbed 20th Century Studios.
The Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck, a domesticated dog who finds himself unexpectedly transported to the Yukon during the gold rush of the 1890s. In a year with Tenet, The Eternals and Dune, this might go unnoticed, but The Call of the Wild sports a sneakily awesome cast as well. Actor Terry Notary, who has portrayed Rocket in the modern Planet of the Apes trilogy and Kong in Kong: Skull Island, plays Buck via motion capture, and he is surrounded by a great cast of actors. Here’s who is in the film:
Harrison Ford And Omar Sy
If there was ever an actor who needed no introduction, it is Harrison Ford. But the star of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises steps into some fairly large shoes here. In The Call of the Wild, Harrison Ford plays an outdoorsman who Buck befriends in the Yukon by the name of John Thornton, a character who has previously been portrayed by, get this, Charlton Heston, Clark Gable and Rutger Hauer. That is some seriously esteemed company that Harrison Ford fits perfectly among.
Harrison Ford is joined in The Call of the Wild by Omar Sy. The French actor, who has previously been seen in huge movies like Jurassic World and X-Men: Days of Future Past, here seemingly plays either Perrault or François. These two are couriers for the Canadian government and some of Buck’s masters in the film.
Karen Gillan And Dan Stevens
We last saw Karen Gillan in the wilds of Jumanji via Jumanji: The Next Level, and in The Call of the Wild the actress will be in a very different kind of wilderness, playing a very different kind of character than the rough and tumbled Ruby Roundhouse. She stars in The Call of the Wild as Mercedes, a spoiled woman who is the sister of Hal.
Legion and Beauty and the Beast’s Dan Stevens plays Hal, who, along with his sister Mercedes and her husband Charles (played by Colin Woodell), are Buck’s owners at one point in the story. Going off Jack London’s story, Hal is an arrogant and violent character who does not treat his animals well and someone you will surely want to punch in the face.
Bradley Whitford And Cara Gee
The always busy and entertaining Bradley Whitford, who appeared just this month in The Last Full Measure, as well as last year’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, stars in The Call of the Wild as Judge Miller. The judge is Buck’s original owner in California where the dog lives in comfort, in stark contrast to where the story takes him.
The story will of course take Buck into the wild and the person who will join him there, to the delight of Beltalowdas everywhere, is Cara Gee. The actress who plays the badass Camina Drummer on Amazon’s The Expanse may be playing a character named Françoise in The Call of the Wild. There is no Françoise in Jack London’s text however there is a François, so the film may be making a gender swap here. Based on the trailer, the indigenous Canadian actress is playing a Native American character who befriends Buck and John Thornton.
The Call of the Wild races into theaters on February 21. Check out our 2020 Release Schedule to keep track of all this year’s biggest movies.
