Timothy Olyphant (Justified, The Crazies) has joined the cast of DreamWorks‘ I Am Number Four, directed by D.J. Caruso. Olyphant joined the cast after Sharlto Copley (The A-Team, District 9) dropped out. Copley, who played Wikus Van De Merwe in Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 was to play a man who hailed from the alien world’s serving class but now is the title character’s (Alex Pettyfer) adult guardian and mentor.
Variety reports that Copley’s departure is a simple scheduling conflict due to the press obligations for 20th Century Fox’s The A-Team. Film Drunk says however that the real story is that Copley left because he “wanted wear a prosthetic nose and fake ears like Spock and look like an alien in the movie, while director DJ Caruso was adamant that the aliens were supposed to look just like regular humans, hence why they’re able to fit in. our society.”
I’m not sure I buy Film Drunk’s ‘real story’, but stranger things have happened.
[Update 5/13]
MTV News interviewed Copley who said,
“I had actually never announced [my involvement] and neither had DreamWorks, officially. Someone leaked that.”
Copley chuckled at the mention of the creative differences rumor.
“I don’t know where that came from! I was working on a prosthetic look for the character, but not for an alien look at all, no,” he revealed. “He was going to look human. There was no difference of opinion on the physicality, on trying to look like Spock or anything. I love that.”
Ultimately, the actor is disappointed that something couldn’t be worked out. He’s a big fan of Caruso’s –
“I would work with him in a second.”
Efforts were made to keep Copley around, perhaps more than there even should have been, but in the end everyone agreed that the movie, the story, would be best served if he bowed out.
“They were really trying to be as accommodating as possible to even rewrite certain scenes, to write me out of stuff, so it would deal with the schedule. But it just wasn’t working in terms of what was coming together,” Copley said. “It was like, ‘Guys, you’re harming the movie and the character’s function in the film to accommodate the schedule’s requirements.’ Obviously, they knew it would be tricky up front, so we were really trying to work that out. We just realized that in the best interest of the film, it wasn’t right for us to try and do it.”
I Am Number Four will be directed by D.J. Caruso (Eagle Eye), and Michael Bay will produce the film alongside Steven Spielberg. Al Gough and Miles Millar, the creators of Smallville adapted the screenplay from a planned six-book series to be introduced in the fall by HarperCollins Children’s Books.
I Am Number Four is slated to hit theaters on February 18th, 2011.
