New Lead Actor for Stephen King’s The Ten O’Clock People?

It was announced last year that Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child’s Play, Thinner) would write and direct a movie based on Stephen King’s short story, The Ten O’Clock People. While Justin Long was in talks to star in the movie previously, it's been reported that another actor will replace him.

According to Deadline, Chris Evans (Captain America) is now circling the role after Justin Long had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Should Evans sign on, the movie will begin shooting this fall in Atlanta. We previously talked to Tom Holland and he told us what to expect from the upcoming adaptation:

“Stephen and I had dinner when I was making The Langoliers and he had recently finished writing Nightmares and Dreamscapes, which had that short story. He was aggravated at dinner because we were both still smoking at the time. They still had smoking and non-smoking sections, but this particular restaurant had gone totally non-smoking. He was aggravated, and needless to say, I wasn’t too thrilled myself.

We were thinking about what kind of people would be exerting this control. It felt like the government trying to control our personal habits. As the internet and digital is growing, the ability of authorities to track you, know what you’re doing, and limit your personal behavior is growing. It seemed to me that the themes that were in The Ten O’Clock People went further than just having a cigarette. I thought it was an interesting platform to make a metaphor of what could happen if things went wrong.

What I’ve done is added a drug element. It’s about people who have taken a stop smoking drug and went back to smoking. Then they start seeing things that they shouldn’t be seeing.”

As reported earlier, Rachel Nichols (Conan remake) was confirmed as having joined the cast. Expect more details on the project and casting later this year.