Add four more to the cast of ‘Airbender’
Source: THR
Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub, Cliff Curtis and Keong Sim have boarded the cast of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender, joining Noah Ringer and Slumdog Millionaire’s Dev Patel for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie is based on the popular anime-inspired Nickelodeon TV series.
The live-action feature is being produced by Shyamalan, Sam Mercer and Frank Marshall.
In the film, the four nations (Air, Water, Earth and Fire) are in turmoil as the Fire Nation wages war on the others. Aang (Ringer) is the lone Avatar who can manipulate all four elements and possibly restore peace to their world.
Mandvi is set to play the Fire Nation’s Commander Zhao, Curtis will play the Fire Lord Ozai, and Toub is Uncle Iroh, a retired Fire Nation general. Sim will play Earthbending Father.
Shyamalan has signed to shoot the first feature in a planned trilogy, to which Paramount has budgeted $250 million. The martial arts-heavy series is set to film in Greenland and Vietnam.
The shoot is scheduled to begin in this month for a release on July 2, 2010.
I have not seen the source material but have heard great things about it and it’s in my netflix queue. Dev Patel won me over with his role in Slumdog but I have my reservations with it being helmed by Shyamalan given his recent track record.
What do YOU think?
