
The
Slumdog Millionaire star
Dev Patel is reportedly in early talks for the lead in
Neill Blomkamp‘s sci-fi comedy
Chappie.
The British actor could play the human lead opposite Blomkamp's frequent collaborator,
Sharlto Copley, who's been attached to play a robot for months.
Elysium follow-up
Chappie is based on a short South African filmmaker made in 2004, entitled
Tetra Vaal, a fake advertisement for a robotic police force patrolling the rundown towns while Patel would play a young man living in one of these impoverished places.
Blomkamp said of the film last year:
It's like a fundamentally more simple story, a comedy, a heartfelt story, in a science fiction setting. And it's fucking hilarious, it's a really cool film. I can say that with confidence… It's a smaller film, a more esoteric one.
Patel's roles have been rather few and far between, most notably in
The Last Airbender and
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. He's currently a series regular on
Aaron Sorkin's ‘
The Newsroom' (HBO), which returns for its second season on July 14th.
Check out the video for Tetra Vaal below.
[jwplayer mediaid=”162580″]