Stephen Sommers' Odd Thomas continues to round up an impressive cast despite being based on a Dean Koontz novel. The film stars Anton Yelchin the eponymous character who is able to see and partially communicate with the dead. In addition to rising stars Addison Timlin (Californication) and Nico Tortorella (Scream 4), Willem Dafoe is in talks to join and now Variety reports that Patton Oswalt "will play Oswald "Ozzie" P. Boone, an eccentric artist who designs sculptures, including a steel pendant that the titular clairvoyant hero wears around his neck." Production on Odd Thomas is slated to begin next month in New Mexico.Oswalt will be seen in theaters later this year in Jason Reitman's Young Adult and the comedy A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas. He's also recording a new CD/DVD/Showtime special on May 14th in Seattle. Hit the jump for a synopsis of Odd Thomas.Here's the synopsis for Dean Koontz' Odd Thomas:
âThe dead donât talk. I donât know why.â But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn. Maybe he has a gift, maybe itâs a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Oddâs otherworldly tips to Pico Mundoâs sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time itâs different.
A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the worldâs worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Oddâs deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar for August 15.
Today is August 14.
In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock ânâ Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmaresâand a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere. [Amazon]