Michael Peña replaced Stanley Tucci in the cast for Roland Emmerich's sci-fi thriller Moonfall.
According to Deadline, Tucci had to drop out of Moonfall due to government-imposed travel restrictions preventing flights from the U.K. into Canada in response to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It also reported that Carolina Bartczak (X-Men: Apocalypse), Stephen Bogaert (The Umbrella Academy) and Maxim Roy (Shadowhunters) joined the film's cast, which already includes Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, Donald Sutherland, Eme Ikwuakor, John Bradley and Charlie Plummer.
Moonfall will follow a ragtag team led by former NASA astronaut Brian Harper (Wilson) as they try and save the world after a mysterious force knocks the Moon out of its orbit and onto a collision course with Earth. Peña will costar in Moonfall as Tom Lopez, a successful car dealer who is married to Brian's ex-wife Brenda (Bartczak), a character described as being "loving and fierce." Roy will costar as Gabriella Auclair, a "hardened" army captain who assists Brian's team, with Bogaert playing NASA Director Albert Hutchings.
Emmerich is directing Moonfall from a script he co-wrote with Spenser Cohen and Harald Kloser. The film will be distributed by Lionsgate in North America and was once expected to begin production last fall for a 2021 release date. However, because of delays stemming from the continuing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Moonfall is now projected to reach theaters sometime in 2022.
Moonfall will only be the second sci-fi movie Emmerich has directed in the past decade, following Independence Day: Resurgence in 2016. The filmmaker made his name helming the lucrative sci-fi hits Universal Soldier, Stargate and Independence Day in the 1990s, before branching out into historical epics and natural disaster thrillers in the 2000s. He and his trusted co-writer Dean Devlin announced their plans to remake Stargate in 2014, with the intention of kicking off a new trilogy of films. However, Devlin confirmed the project had fallen apart two years later.
Before he stars in Moonfall, Peña will appear in Warner Bros.' live-action/animated Tom and Jerry, which is scheduled to release theatrically and on HBO Max on Feb. 26. He's also contracted to play Luis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe one more time and will most likely reprise the role in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Directed by Roland Emmerich, Moonfall stars Patrick Wilson, Halle Berry, Donald Sutherland, Eme Ikwuakor, John Bradley, Charlie Plummer, Michael Peña, Carolina Bartczak, Stephen Bogaert and Maxim Roy. It has yet to receive an official release date.
Source: Deadline