After establishing himself as an author of fairly mature children's books with Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH(later adapted as The Secret of NIMH), Robert Conley (pen name Robert O'Brien) took to writing novels intended for adults. That led to his deeply disturbing, haunting 1974 post-apocalyptic novel Z for Zachariah, published posthumously by his wife and daughter. Remarkably, other than a fairly pedestrian 1984 BBC adaptation, it's never been brought to the big screen. But that's about to change, as Craig Zobel (Compliance) became attached to direct a Tobey Maguire-produced adaptation last summer, and now his cast is starting to come together.
The underrated Chiwetel Ejiofor (Redbelt), Amanda Seyfried, and Chris Pine are the first three to sign on to the psychological thriller. Seyfried will play Ann Borden, who believes she is the lone survivor of a devastating nuclear event. That turns out not to be the case, however, as she soon encounters Professor Loomis (Ejiofor), which leads to a weird love/hate relationship. The novel basically follows only these two characters, so it's interesting that Pine has supposedly been cast as another survivor. It's possible that Nissar Modi's screenplay is going to tweak the story a little bit.
It's another big move for Pine, who can already be seen saving the universe in Star Trek Into Darkness, and is eying a major role opposite Johnny Depp in Into the Woods. Filming on Z for Zachariah begins this August, and you can listen to Zobel briefly discuss it here.
