Will this be the movie that vaults the underrated Chris Messina into the upper pantheon of Hollywood Chrisses? Deadline reports that Messina will star in the “contained space thriller” ISS, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Blackfish).
Few details are known about the film, which (unsurprisingly) focuses on astronauts living on the International Space Station. Bad news from Earth “threatens their missions and their lives.” The screenplay, by Nick Shafir, was featured in the 2020 Black List. Game of Thrones‘ Pilou Asbæk, John Gallagher Jr., Costa Ronin, and Masha Mashkova are also among the ensemble cast.
Messina, one of the great unsung Chrisses, has been steadily building his presence over the decades, turning up in small-to-medium roles in everything from Julie & Julia to Celeste & Jesse Forever to Zeroville, the James Franco film in which Messina played Brian DePalma. His delectably screwy turn as Victor Zsasz (pictured above) in Birds of Prey was a profile-raising surprise; anyone who could hold their own next to Ewan McGregor’s Roman Sionis was clearly doing a lot of things right. Recently, he’s also been in The Sinner and the Sharp Object miniseries, and his upcoming roles include a part in the star-studded con story I Care a Lot.
Is space the final frontier by which a Chris is elevated to the level of ranking posts and Twitter arguments? We’ll have to wait and see. ISS doesn’t have a release date or production schedule just yet.
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