Actress Alicia Vikander is all the rage at the moment, and for good reason. She’s outstanding in Alex Garland’s tremendous sci-fi thriller Ex Machina, and fresh off that film’s success, she’s signing on to lead a very promising sounding project. Image Nation announced today that Vikander has signed on to star in The Circle, based on Dave Eggers’ 2013 novel of the same name.

The story revolves around a recent college graduate who gets a job at a powerful tech company called The Circle. While there, she strikes up a relationship with the company’s charismatic co-founder.

The role of the co-founder will be played by none other than Mr. Tom Hanks, who is also onboard to produce. If that didn’t make this project enticing enough, The Spectacular Now director James Ponsoldt is penning the screenplay and directing, with production set to begin this August in California. Ponsoldt will no doubt be a heavily in-demand item himself when his latest film, the David Foster Wallace drama The End of the Tour, opens in theaters later this year. I caught it at Sundance and it’s remarkable.

But Ex Machina fans won’t have to wait long to see Vikander back up on the big screen. She stars opposite Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer in Guy Ritchie’s spy film The Man from U.N.C.L.E., she returns to drama alongside Eddie Redmayne in Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, and she has supporting roles in Derek Cianfrance’s adaptation The Light Between Oceans and the Bradley Cooper-fronted chef drama Adam Jones. Move over Jessica Chastain, it’s officially the year of Vikander.


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Image via Warner Bros.