Alright, alright, alright.  As Christopher Nolan brought his Batman trilogy to a close last summer with the release of The Dark Knight Rises, interest then turned to what Nolan would choose as his next project.  We finally learned in January that Nolan had settled on the ambitious sci-fi film Interstellar as his next directorial outing, and now it appears that he’s decided on who he wants as his lead: none other than Mr. Matthew McConaughey.  Hit the jump for more.

Though plot details for Interstellar are being kept firmly under wraps, the pic is said to depict "a heroic interstellar voyage to the furthest reaches of our scientific understanding.”  The initial script was written years by Nolan’s brother Jonathan Nolan (who scripted The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises) as a potential directorial vehicle for Steven Spielberg, but when Christopher signed on to direct it was revealed that he would be doing a rewrite in order to incorporate an original idea of his own.

With a November 2014 release date set, Nolan has now turned to casting.  Deadline reports that the director has extended an offer for the male lead to Matthew McConaughey, and I’d be shocked if the actor turned him down.  McConaughey has been on a fantastic streak as of late, coming off a stellar string of projects in 2012.  He shined with supporting roles in Bernie and Magic Mike and had interesting lead turns in Killer Joe and The Paperboy.  McConaughey has yet another stellar performance on deck in the festival hit Mud, which is expected to hit theaters this year, and recently wrapped the starring role in a passion project of his, the AIDS drama The Dallas Buyers Club.

McConaughey is currently filming the incredibly promising HBO anthology drama series True Detective with Woody Harrelson, and should he accept the offer for Interstellar one imagines he’d move into shooting the Nolan pic this summer.  McConaughey is a refreshingly fascinating choice to lead Nolan’s sci-fi film, and I’m interested to see if the filmmaker fills the rest of his cast out with regular collaborators, or if he goes for actors he hasn’t worked with before.  Whatever the case, you can bet interest will be incredibly high when Interstellar hits theaters in IMAX on November 7, 2014.

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Image via Warner Bros.