casting couch

Oscar Isaac Will Be a Movie Star by the Time You See Him in The Promise With Christian Bale

Photo: Getty Images

The Wrap reports that Oscar Isaac will play a Middle Eastern medical student fighting with Christian Bale over a woman, an American reporter (the woman has not yet been cast), in Hotel Rwanda director Terry George’s The Promise, a period drama set during the fall of the Ottoman empire. It’s a solid part for Isaac, but by the time it comes out, it will likely be the sort of solid part we expect for him. With two major blockbuster roles on the horizon — first as pilot Poe Dameron in Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens, and then as titular baddie Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse — Isaac has incredible career potential, just waiting to launch him to the upper echelon of famous.

Think about it like Jeremy Renner’s career after he started getting a ton of buzz from The Hurt Locker. It hasn’t happened yet for Isaac, but he laid the groundwork with his last two buzzy roles — starring opposite Jessica Chastain in A Most Violent Year, and now this year with Ex Machina. With those roles on top of the two blockbusters and the David Simon–Paul Haggis HBO mini-series Show Me a Hero that’s coming later this summer, shortly Isaac will go from the man you loved in Inside Llewyn Davis to the man everyone loves in everything. You better learn to share!

Oscar Isaac & Christian Bale to Star in Promise