Emma Watson was content to take supporting roles immediately following her breakout as Hermione Granger, playing back-up in stuff like THE BLING RING, THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, and NOAH. Now, she’s got REGRESSION with Ethan Hawke rolling out, COLONIA in the can, and is currently filming BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, so it looks like she’s ready to break through as a leading lady. And now, she’s set to star opposite Tom Hanks in an adaptation of Dave Eggers THE CIRCLE.
THE SPECTACULAR NOW director James Ponsoldt is helming the film, which will have Watson front and center as Mae, a young lady who starts working for a heavy-hitter tech company called “The Circle.” As Mae gets more and more involved in the organization, she realizes that their interest in surveillance and data management goes way deeper than anyone could’ve predicted, and as she decides her own level of involvement within the company, her own privacy begins to get exploited. Hanks plays “a mysterious older man,” likely one of the three “Wise Men” who run The Circle.
Apparently, Alicia Vikander was the original lead, but she’s dropped out to do BOURNE 5, allowing Ponsoldt to land the higher-profile, if not quite as critically beloved Watson.
This seems to be the largest-scaled project Ponsoldt’s worked on thus far, but he’s got two bonafide A-listers to lend it some legitimacy right off the bat. Watson’s focused a lot on political matters since she reached adulthood, and it’s not surprising she wanted to take this on: internet security and privacy are obviously among the hottest of hot-button issues right now, and she has to see starring in this as a way to bring a lot of those concerns to light.
Plus, she gets to work with Tom Hanks, which, for anyone of a certain generation (or anyone with a SAG card, for that matter), is a pretty big deal.
What do fans of the book think of Watson as Mae? Who should they get to play her frenemy, Annie?
