Appearance sets up potential sequels…
Tim Blake Nelson (‘Kill the Messenger,’ ‘Lincoln,’ ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’) is in final talks to join Miles Teller (‘The Spectacular Now’), Kate Mara (‘House of Cards’), Michael B. Jordan (‘Fruitvale Station’), Jamie Bell (‘Filth’), and Toby Kebbell (‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’) on the cast of 20th Century Fox’s ‘The Fantastic Four.’
With ‘Chronicle’ helmer Josh Trank directing from a script by Simon Kinberg, the reboot focuses on the Marvel Comics quartet of scientist-adventurers Reed Richards (Teller), aka Mr. Fantastic; his best friend Ben Grimm (Bell), aka The Thing; his girlfriend Sue Storm (Mara), aka The Invisible Woman; and her brother, Johnny (Jordan), aka The Human Torch. Kebbell landed the role of the film’s antagonist, Doctor Doom, last month.
Heat Vision has Blake Nelson up for the role of nuclear engineer and explorer, Harvey Rupert Elder. In comics lore, the eccentric and socially awkward doctor is the Mole Man, the leader of a subterranean group of monsters known as the Moloids.
Elder’s alterego is not expected to appear in this movie but according to the trade’s sources, his appearance does set up the character to be the villain in future installments.