Eddie Redmayne to Lead Marvel's GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Film?

On the heels of the recent Marvel purchase by Disney, the franchise has hired James Gunn to direct its upcoming superhero film, Guardians of the Galaxy, and has reportedly started the casting search for the half-alien protagonist, Peter Quill.

According to Mike Fleming of Deadline.com, Marvel has a handful of leading men in the runnings for this part. Included in this list are Eddie Redmayne, who plays Marius in the Les Miserables film and won a Tony Award for his performance in Red in 2010, as well as The Hobbit's Lee Pace who made his Broadway debut in The Normal Heart last year. Fleming says that they are definitely contenders for the role, but there is no word yet on who will play Peter Quill for sure. Also in the list of possible leads are Joel Edgerton, Jack Huston, Jim Sturgess, Garrett Hedlund, James Marsden, and Sullivan Stapleton.

Though Guardians of the Galaxy was originally a 1969 Marvel comic, it was not until the 1990s that it got its own series. Then in 2008, the stories were re-imagined, upon which this film, slated to come out in August 2014, will be largely based. The story is about Peter Quill and his posse of alien superheroes from the future who join forces to protect the solar system from the evil aliens. As is often true of Marvel Comics, the Guardians worked with other Marvel characters, including The Avengers, so there is also speculation as to whether the characters from that recent film will appear in this one as well.

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