While she'll forever be remembered for the hit series, Felicity, Keri Russell has done a pretty good job setting herself up as a viable action movie heroine. She stars in FX's sleeper agent series The Americans, and of course there was that whole Mission: Impossible III thing with Tom Cruise. Now she'll battle intelligent primates as part of Matt Reeves' Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
Variety has the news, reporting that Russell will take on the unidentified female lead, joining stars Jason Clarke, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Gary Oldman, and Andy Serkis. Picking up 15 years from where the last film left off, the story follows a small human resistance fighting to survive in a San Francisco dominated by Caesar and his ape kingdom. Meanwhile, Caesar struggles to hold on to the power he's accumulated.
Adding Russell makes sense as she worked with Reeves on Felicity, and has been a regular of Bad Robot productions over the years. One of my personal favorite actresses, I'll always love her for films like 8 Days a Week, August Rush, and the vastly underrated Waitress. She recently starred in the extraterrestrial horror, Dark Skies, and was by far the best thing about it.
Written by Mark Bomback, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes opens on May 23rd 2014.
