Source: Variety
Damned promotional tours! Sharlto Copley was all set to join his third big-budget blockbuster in three years when the inevitable happened: a conflict of interest. Variety reports that, due to his responsibilities to promote 20th Century Fox’s The A-Team (in which he plays ‘Howling’ Mad Murdock), the South African actor will have to bow out of Michael Bay and D.J. Caruso’s sci-fi actioner I Am Number Four.
His role as protector of the teenage aliens from James Frey and Jobie Hughes novel will instead be played by Timothy Olyphant. It’s a blow for the actor, who has turned the success of District 9 into opportunities to join high-profile projects. Still, I enjoy Olyphant’s work – from Deadwood to Live Free Or Die Hard to The Crazies – immensely, so getting to see him in another sure-to-be hit is a plus, and it’s not like more roles won’t come around for Copley, who now has a genre-loving fanbase eager to see him in new things.
Written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, I Am Number Four will be released sometime in 2011.
