First announced back in early 2021, Gareth Edwards’ near-future sci-fi movie True Love is reorganizing its cast members. Benedict Wong, who is featured in Marvel’s upcoming film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, had to exit the project due to scheduling conflicts, and will be replaced by Academy Award nominee Ken Watanabe, who previously worked with Edwards in 2014's Godzilla.
As details of the plot of True Love are being kept under wraps, it is unclear at what capacity Wong was originally featured and, subsequently, which role Watanabe is set to take on. The Japanese star has featured in the cast of mega-blockbusters like Christopher Nolan's Inception and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, aside from starring in critically acclaimed titles such as Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima and The Last Samurai.
Also previously announced for True Love is Academy Award and six-time Emmy winner Allison Janney (I, Tonya). Janney’s history with comedic roles might suggest that True Love has a comic vein of its own, and the title itself hints at a love story, albeit in a sci-fi setting. It could be all of those things at once, but it’s still too early to tell. Production started just a little over a month ago, so we have to kick back wait a while longer before getting first images and even a trailer.
Aside from Janney, Watanabe will join John David Washington, Gemma Chan, and Sturgill Simpson. The story is written by Edwards himself.True Love will mark Edwards’ fourth incursion in sci-fi stories in film. He made his feature film debut with BAFTA nominee Monsters, a 2010 film starring Scoot McNairy. The movie stood out because it was produced with a skeleton crew and Edwards doubled down as director of photography, visual effects and production designer. The budget was under $500,000 and the movie went on to gross over $4 million.
After making a miracle out of a tiny monster movie, Edwards was quickly picked up to direct Godzilla, which grossed over $500 million. The director was then invited to helm Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is considered one of the most expensive films ever made – a long way from the filmmaker’s original project. Should Edwards’ talent to tell sci-fi stories and domain over all-sized budgets prove a good combination again, we could be looking at another highly entertaining story to look forward to in the upcoming months.
True Love has yet to receive a release date.