Guardians Of The Galaxy is coming in 2014, so Marvel has to get moving. And apparently casting has kicked into full gear, as they’re looking for the male lead.
So far, the reported nominees for astronaut Peter Quill are Joel Edgerton, Jack Huston, Jim Sturgess, Lee Pace, and Eddie Redmayne. You probably know Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies or as the fabulous Thranduil from the upcoming Hobbit movies; Huston is a regular on Boardwalk Empire; Joel Edgerton is pretty much everywhere right now; Jim Sturgess was the subject of the crappiest Beatles joke ever committed to film in a movie full of them; and Eddie Redmayne is an indie actor about to be featured in Les Miserables.
Of the current crop, Pace is probably the best choice, mostly because Sturgess and Redmayne look like they’re barely out of high school. In addition to playing an elf and a dude with an undead girlfriend, he was also the lead in The Fall, which is probably one of the heaviest dramas to come out in the last ten years and is anchored by Pace’s performance as a drug-addicted, self-loathing stuntman, putting him solidly in the category of “people who got massively robbed at the Oscars”. It’s on Netflix, and it’s worth seeing; how Pace didn’t break out as a star after that is kind of a mystery.
Either way, expect to see more casting news quickly on this one: It’s going to be effects-heavy and they need to get in front of the cameras, pronto.