Florence Pugh (Black Widow, Midsommar), Rami Malek (No Time to Die, Bohemian Rhapsody) and actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie (Licorice Pizza, Good Time) are the latest additions to the cast of Christopher Nolan’s new film Oppenheimer, sources have confirmed to Deadline.
While Universal declined comment, Pugh, Malek and Safdie will join a cast led by Cillian Murphy that also includes Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt.
The film written and directed by Nolan will tell the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Murphy), the scientist behind the Manhattan Project, which led to the invention of the atomic bomb. The film is scheduled for release on July 21, 2023, occupying a slot Nolan has locked in for his films in the past.
Pugh will play Jean Tatlock, a member of the Communist Party of the United States who had an affair with Oppenheimer, while Safdie will be Hungarian physicist Edward Teller, who was involved with the Manhattan Project and is known as the father of the hydrogen bomb. We hear that Malek will be playing another scientist, but no specifics have been disclosed.
Nolan’s latest is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. He is producing the tentpole pic alongside Emma Thomas and Charles Roven of Atlas Entertainment.
Deadline was first to announce that Oppenheimer would be Nolan’s next film, also breaking the news of Universal landing the rights to the project following a heated bidding war. Deadline also first indicated that Murphy would have a key role in the project, breaking the castings of Damon, Downey and Blunt.