While fans are waiting for Disney and Lucasfilm to assemble all the moving pieces to get Indiana Jones 5 off the ground, Harrison Ford is heading off on another adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. Now, he’ll be joined by an actor who would actually make one hell of an Indiana Jones replacement.
Dan Stevens has taken an eclectic line-up of roles from a lawyer on Downton Abbey to a goofy Sir Lancelot in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, and from a deadly houseguest named “David” in The Guest to the psychic mutant David in Legion. Now he’ll be taking a significant role in the adaptation of Jack London’s classic canine wilderness survival story The Call of the Wild.
For those who may not be familiar with The Call of the Wild, the story follows a half St. Bernard and half sheepdog named Buck who is living a comfortable life on a judge’s estate in the Santa Clara Valley of California. But his life is thrown into upheaval when men discover gold in the Klondike region of Canada and a great demand arises for strong dogs to pull sleds. Buck ends up kidnapped by a gardener and sold to dog traders, sending him on a dangerous journey through the Alaskan wilderness and a series of abusive owners, taking him away from civilization and turning him into a dog of the wild.
Variety has word on Dan Stevens joining The Call of the Wild movie cast, though it’s not clear what role he will have in the film. However, the best bet might be one of the three American gold hunters who acquire Buck and some other sled dogs from two mail carriers working for the Canadian government. Those characters have a significant role, and having Dan Stevens play the leader of the three, who plays an integral part in the progression of Buck’s transformation into a wild dog, would make sense.
We already know Harrison Ford is playing John Thornton, a gold prospector who becomes the only man in The Call of the Wild that Buck remains loyal to. But otherwise, the cast still needs to be filled out. Of course, the real star of the movie is the dog who will play Buck, and he better get top billing on the poster when this movie comes out.
There have been a lot of bad movies centered around dogs, but this one sounds like it could actually be good. Jack London’s novel (which was originally a serial) is a classic for a reason, and this book is undoubtedly a page-turning adventure that will keep audiences engaged. Of course, it helps that a good boy is at the center of the story too.
Animation director Chris Sanders (The Croods, How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch) is making the jump to live-action as the director of the film. He’ll be working from a script by Michael Green (Logan). While there will be some on-location shooting done in California, there will also be plenty of time spent on sound stages where visual effects will be used to create the dog-sled sequences. That includes having Fox VFX Lab (formerly known as Technoprops, founded by Jungle Book and Avatar effects master Glenn Derry) bringing the dogs to life. But hopefully there are some real dogs used in the movie too.
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