Aman Goyal
Josh O’Connor has landed the role of a lifetime! The Cinemaholic can announce that the actor will star alongside Emily Blunt and Colin Firth in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming UFO film, tentatively titled ‘The Dish.’ The movie’s filming will start in New Jersey and Atlanta, Georgia, in February 2025. The screenplay is penned by David Koepp, with the filmmaker’s frequent collaborator Kristie Macosko Krieger serving as the producer. Universal Pictures will bring the project to theaters on May 15, 2026. The plot is currently under wraps, but the film is described as a “two-hander” based on Spielberg’s original idea.
O’Connor, with his acclaimed performance as the tennis player Patrick Zweig in Luca Guadagnino’s romantic drama ‘Challengers,’ has established himself as a prominent leading man. After appearing in the 2013 comedy film ‘The Magnificent Eleven’ and Kenneth Branagh’s ‘Cinderella,’ he had his breakout role in Francis Lee’s acclaimed drama ‘God’s Own Country.’ The actor recently portrayed photographer Antony Penrose in the Kate Winslet-led biopic ‘Lee’ and co-wrote and starred in last year’s coming-of-age film ‘Bonus Track.’
O’Connor’s other prominent credits include Arthur in Alice Rohrwacher’s adventure film ‘La Chimera,’ Prince Charles in Netflix’s historical drama series ‘The Crown,’ Marius in ‘Les Misérables,’ and James in the global phenomenon ‘Peaky Blinders.’ Among his future projects are the highly anticipated ‘Wake Up Dead Man,’ the third installment in the ‘Knives Out’ trilogy, and ‘The History of Sound,’ also starring Paul Mescal.
Blunt is riding high on the critical successes of David Leitch’s ‘The Fall Guy’ and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer.’ Her performance in the latter as Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer earned her first-ever Academy Award nomination earlier this year. The actress will reunite with Dwayne Johnson after ‘Jungle Cruise’ in Benny Safdie’s upcoming biopic ‘The Smashing Machine,’ in which she will play former MMA champion Mark Kerr’s ex-wife, Dawn Staples.
Firth most recently portrayed Donald Ellis alongside Olivia Colman in Sam Mendes’ psychological drama ‘Empire of Light’ and Michael Peterson in Max’s crime drama series ‘The Staircase.’ His credits also extend to Ewen Montagu in ‘Operation Mincemeat’ and Godfrey Niven in ‘Mothering Sunday.’
As for the auteur of the project, Spielberg will be returning to the realm of science fiction following the 2018 smash hit ‘Ready Player One.’ Although the legendary filmmaker’s subsequent dramas — ‘West Side Story’ and ‘The Fabelmans’ — were critically acclaimed, and the latter won him another Golden Globe Award for Best Director, they had poor box office turnouts. Having mastered alien-oriented stories with classics such as ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,’ Spielberg hasn’t delved into such stories since the Tom Cruise-led ‘War of the Worlds,’ making this project all the more special.
Atlanta has long been a second home to large-scale Hollywood productions. The Marvel Cinematic Universe leads this roster with sci-fi epics such as ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ and the upcoming ‘Captain America: Brave New World.’ Spielberg’s fellow auteur Francis Ford Coppola utilized the city for his ambitious project ‘Megalopolis,’ while Blunt’s ‘Pain Hustlers’ was also shot in the region. On the other hand, New Jersey has its own record of hosting the filming of high-profile movies, ranging from ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ to this year’s ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ and ‘Space Cadet.’
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