Mike Fleming

Elijah Wood has been just set for the lead role in Maniac, and believe me, Frodo is a long way from the Shire in this one. In the indie that will be directed by Franck Khalfoun and produced by Alexandre Aja and Gregory Lavasseur, Wood plays the role of a serial killer who works at a shop that sells antique mannequins. He finds victims on the Internet and stalks them like prey, all the while suffering from hallucinations that throw him back into the past, when he was abused by his own mother. In his twisted mind, he gains a measure of revenge against his mother with each kill. It will shoot later this year.

This isn’t the first deranged killer role for Wood, who played the creepy cannibal Kevin in Sin City. Wood has been working up a storm, in the upcoming Happy Feet 2, the indie Celeste and Jesse, Sky TV’s Treasure Island, and, of course, he reprises his signature role in The Hobbit. Wood also reprises his starring role in the series Wilfred, which begins production early next year. He’s repped by Brillstein Partners and WME.