One of the highly anticipated films next year is Christopher Nolan’s epic World War II biopic Oppenheimer and if you thought the extremely large star-studded cast could not get any bigger, think again. Reported exclusively by Variety, Drake & Josh star Josh Peck has joined the insane ensemble cast.
In the film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin, Peck will play Kenneth Bainbridge. His character was a“ real scientist who was involved in the Manhattan Project, the codename for America’s effort to develop nuclear weapons during the second world war.” The film stars Cillian Murphy as the title character J. Robert Oppenheimer and the story is about his contributions in the area of physics that led to the creation of the atomic bomb. The film also stars Emily Blunt as biologist and botanist Kitty Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as Manhattan Project director Leslie Groves Jr. and Robert Downey Jr. as founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Lewis Strauss.
On top of that, the film features Florence Pugh as psychiatrist Jean Tatlock, Benny Safdie as theoretical physicist Edward Teller, and Josh Hartnett as pioneering American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence. Rami Malek, Jack Quaid, Michael Angarano, Alden Ehrenreich, Kenneth Branagh, and Matthew Modine will also appear in the film. The screenplay was adapted by Nolan who is also producing the film with his long-time partner Emma Thomas. Universal is distributing the film, which reportedly has a $100 million budget, and it will begin production in early 2022.
Anyone born in the 90s is sure to know Peck from his Nickelodeon days on the sketch comedy series The Amanda Show from 2000 to 2002 before he hit it big on the kids’ network with Drake & Josh. That popular series ran for four seasons and had multiple TV movies from 2004 to 2007. Since then the actor has kept busy with films like Drillbit Taylor, The Wackness, the Red Dawn remake, and Danny Collins. He has also starred in series like the short-lived Disney+ adaptation of Turner and Hooch and Hulu’s spinoff series How I Met Your Father. Later this year, Peck is starring in Netflix‘s 13: The Musical with Debra Messing, and he is reuniting with Drake & Josh co-star Miranda Cosgrove in an episode of iCarly. That series premieres its second season in April.
In a cast full of A-listers, Peck may seem like an odd choice for this film given his more comedic background, but in Nolan we trust. Peck is such an under-appreciated talent in Hollywood, and it will be interesting to see the actor in a more dramatic setting. It also might get a younger generation of moviegoers who were not necessarily interested in this war film, interested because of Peck’s intriguing casting. Like the power of the atomic bomb itself, Nolan’s cast for Oppenheimer cannot be contained. We will see it explode when the film lands in theaters on July 21, 2023.
via Collider