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Brian Cox is the latest addition to the cast of Pixels, the big-budget adventure movie starring Adam Sandler as an aging video game champion enlisted to defend the world against an alien invasion.
EXCLUSIVE: Michelle Monaghan Joining Adam Sandler in ‘Pixels’
The Scottish actor, 68, is best known to American audiences for his subtle and intense character work in a wide array of films including 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, in which he played the abusive manager of a primate shelter that holds Caesar, the movie’s simian star.
Other notable film credits include Braveheart (1995), Rushmore (1998), Adaptation (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004). On TV, he played Daphne’s father on Frasier and won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Hermann Goering in the TNT miniseries Nuremberg (2000).
Cox joins an all-star Pixels cast that includes Sandler, Peter Dinklage, Kevin James, Josh Gad and Michelle Monaghan. He’ll play military heavyweight Admiral Porter.
STORY: Peter Dinklage in Talks to Join Adam Sandler in ‘Pixels’
Based on a 2010 Internet short by Patrick Jean, the feature, written by Tim Herlihy and Tim Dowling, chronicles what happens when aliens misinterpret video feeds from classic arcade games as a declaration of war.
They launch an attack on planet Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. The U.S. president (James) turns to his childhood best friend (Sandler) to lead a team of old-school arcaders to save the world.
The project, to be directed by Chris Columbus, will likely begin shooting in Toronto in June. Producing are Happy Madison’s Sandler and Allen Covert, as well as Columbus and his 1492 Pictures partners Michael Barnathan and Mark Radcliffe. Executive producers are Barry Bernardi, Jack Giarraputo, Heather Parry and Seth Gordon.
It will hit theaters May 15, 2015, opening opposite George Miller‘s Mad Max: Fury Road.
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