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EXCLUSIVE: Director Stephen Daldry has set Thomas Horn to play the lead role alongside Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the Eric Roth-scripted adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s acclaimed novel for Warner Bros and producer Scott Rudin. Production begins early next year.
Daldry needed an exceptionally intelligent kid to play Oskar Schell, the bright and precocious 9-year old whose father is killed in the World Trade Center terror attack. The youth finds a key left behind in his father’s belongings, and sets out on a cathartic journey to uncover the lock. Horn is something of a wiz kid himself, making national headlines in October when the 12-year old won first place on Jeopardy!, winning in a $12,000 final wager that brought him $31,800 in prize money. Horn has already signed with ICM, the agency that also reps young thesps Hailee Steinfeld, (a revelation in True Grit), Abigail Breslin and Kodi Smit-McPhee from Let Me In.
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Good for the kid, but right now I think everyone in the world who has ever won even a single game on J! (Except for those who appeared on “Celebrity Jeopardy”) is doing a collective spit take and yelling out loud “Where’s MY Movie Role?!”
I read this script. The role would be highly challenging for any actor, let alone a child, let alone a child who has never acted before. He will be in every scene of the 143 page screenplay and will need to display a wide range of emotion all the while spitting out thick copious amounts of dialouge. By page 15 I asked myself, out loud, “who the hell is gonna play this kid?”
Scott Rudin is probably the best prodcuer alive today (in my opinion) I trust he will pull this off. I am excited to see how things turn out. My
How did you read the script? I would love to see it – I just finished reading the book and I’m extremely interested in how they’re going to adapt it into a screenplay.
One of my favorite books.
Can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Go Thomas! What a wonderful opportunity, and you’re going to be great! Congrats from all your Jeopardy! fans.
“Daldry needed an exceptionally intelligent kid to play Oskar Schell, the bright and precocious 9-year old whose father is killed in the World Trade Center terror attack.”
Um,why? It’s called acting. You don’t have to be a genius to play one in a movie.
Just because this kid is smart does not mean he can also act. It’s a whole different ball game.
Yes it’s called acting, but honestly, to get a kid to play Oskar, I feel like they really need to BE him, or at least be quite similar. Its a challenging role, a complex character with a lot of traits that I would imagine to be very challenging to “act”, especially for a child who might not be familiar with a lot of the things Oskar is into, which is why I was hoping they would cast someone like this. Hopefully it works out! I am nervous about the Bullock move- I was hoping for a lesser known actress. But maybe it’ll be okay….
YOU ALL NEED TOO STOP HATING ON THIS “KID”!!!! GIVE HIM ENCOURAGEMENT AND A CHANCE TO EXPLORE DIFFERENT OBSTACLES IN “HIS” LIFE. THAT’S ONE OF THE THINGS THAT’S WRONG WITH OUR YOUTH TODAY, SMH……..YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!
I auditioned for Oskar in this movie, and I agree with JK. This kid will NEVER pull this off. Either they will recast, or the movie will suck.
I just saw this movie with my friend… We both thought Thomas Horn who played (Oskar) was extremely great… I give this movie a A+ ..Because of him… great great great…loved it..
My wife and I just saw the movie yesterday and we were not aware of the book nor Jonathan Safran Foer’s works. I began web searching for the background of the movie because we were amazed by Thomas Horn’s brilliant rendition of this ‘Extremely Intelligent and Incredibly Talented’ young boy who played Oskar (nice coincidence) and found this website. Like other posters aboove, we also thought “Who is this kid?” And since he was the only ‘lead’ actor, was on screen the whole time and had diabolically disconnected discourses to render throughout the movie, if he hadn’t been a brilliant kid (as opposed to a proven young actor), he could have never pulled this off. Well, at least we now know that he was smart enough to be a record-breaking winner on ‘Jeopardy Kids,’ but we’re hopeful that he goes onto greater things in whatever else he chooses to do… whether it’s being an actor, a rocket scienctist, a brain surgeon or an oxymoron enthusiast. He is ‘extraordinary’ in our opinion… wait a minute… isn’t that an oxymoron, too?
I saw this film yesterday and have to say, that Thomas Horn was absolutely brilliant. I love the film and Mr. Horn. He has a bright future I think, and hope he doesn’t become another Hollywood casulity. Kudos to all involved.