Harry Styles, movie star: One Direction member offered lead in Christopher Nolan film
LOS ANGELES -- Well, that didn't take long. One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles -- whose band is on extended hiatus -- has been offered a lead role in Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan's next project, Mashable has confirmed.
If he accepts the role -- and by all indications, that is happening -- Styles would star in an ensemble of up-and-coming Brits including Jack Lowden, Aneurin Barnard and newcomer Fionn Whitehead.
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The film also stars some formidable grownups, including Nolan regular Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh and recent Oscar-winner Mark Rylance. But for now, the World War II action-adventure definitely centers on the boys' involvement in the evacuation of Dunkirk, France, by the British military in 1940.
Warner Bros. declined to comment, but a person close to the project tells Mashable that Styles is all but set for what would amount to a co-lead in the four-way ensemble of young actors.
Slated for summer of 2017, Dunkirk will be Styles' acting debut, which Deadline first reported Friday. But it won't be his first time up there; he was bigscreen-projected aplenty in One Direction: This is Us, the 2013 documentary that grossed a respectable $68.5 million worldwide.
The news ends months of speculation that Styles, now 22, was eyeing an acting career. E! News floated the first trial balloon back in August, when Styles' camp said that it was taking its time looking for "the right role."
Considering what he was leaving behind, it was a mighty gamble.
One Direction released four studio albums from 2011 to 2014, each one debuting No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, amassing $125 million in one year through sales and touring, Forbes estimated.
It took his agents 6 months, time well-spent. Co-lead in a Nolan ensemble action-adventure?
Either we've been incepted, or it sounds like that other direction is off to a dreamy start.
Mashable Music Reporter Emily Blake contributed reporting to this story.
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Josh Dickey is Mashable's Entertainment Editor, leading Mashable's TV, music, gaming and sports reporters as well as writing movie features and reviews.Josh has been the Film Editor at Variety, Entertainment Editor at The Associated Press and Managing Editor at TheWrap.com.A finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club's Best Entertainment Feature in 2015 for "Everyone is Altered: The Secret Hollywood Procedure that Fooled Us for Years," Josh received his BA in Journalism from The University of Minnesota.In between screenings, he can be found skating longboards, shredding guitar and wandering the streets of his beloved downtown Los Angeles.
