As first reported on Deadline.com, actor Morgan Freeman has signed on to star alongside Tom Cruise in the Post-Apocalyptic film OBLIVION from Universal Studios. The film will be directed by Joseph Kosinski. Andrea Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko are also to be featured in the cast.
In the film, Cruise will portray "the last man on a post-apocalyptic and nearly uninhabitable Earth, who stays behind to repair ships that hunt down and blast a virulent alien species". It remains uncertain what role Freeman will play in the story.
Freeman won an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby, for which he also won a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award® and received a Golden Globe nomination. Freeman has been honored with three additional Oscar® nominations -- the first for his chilling performance as a homicidal pimp in the 1987 drama, Street Smart, which also brought him L.A., New York and National Society of Film Critics Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He earned his second Oscar® nomination and won Golden Globe and National Board of Review Awards for Best Actor for 1989's Driving Miss Daisy, recreating his award-winning off-Broadway role. He gained his third Oscar® nomination for his performance in Frank Darabont's 1994 drama, The Shawshank Redemption, which also brought Freeman Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations. He has appeared on Broadway in The Country Girl, The Gospel at Colonus, The Mighty Gents, Perlie, The Dozens, and Hello, Dolly!
His more recent film work includes starring roles in Christopher Nolan's blockbusters The Dark Knight and Batman Begins; Rob Reiner's The Bucket List, opposite Jack Nicholson; Robert Benton's Feast of Love; Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone; Lasse Hallström's An Unfinished Life, with Robert Redford and Jennifer Lopez; the Jet Li actioner Unleashed, written by Luc Besson; and the comedy Bruce Almighty and its sequel, Evan Almighty.
