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Chris Messina Cast in M. Night Shyamalan Produced 'Devil'

by Alex Billington
October 16, 2009

Finally Chris Messina gets cast in a lead role! Unfortunately it's for a horror movie and I'm not sure it'll end up being that big. Messina is set to star in Devil, a horror-thriller based on an M. Night Shyamalan story that's being directed by John Erick and Drew Dowdle of The Poughkeepsie Tapes and Quarantine. Devil is the first film in the Night Chronicles series, a trio of thrillers in which Shyamalan will create the premise then pass the idea off to other filmmakers to be developed into a feature. The script was written by Hard Candy and 30 Days of Night writer Brian Nelson. Production begins in Toronto later this month.

The plot of Devil is being kept under wraps by Universal at the moment, but word is that Messina will play Bowden, a "sobered-up homicide detective." Not much to go off of. We last wrote about the project back in August when it was announced that production would be moved up to Canada. I've been a staunch supporter of New York based actor Chris Messina for a long time, hoping he'd get the chance to really break out. I won't say this is his chance, considering it is a horror film, but I'm glad to see him finally getting some lead roles. We'll let you know when we hear more about Devil, which sounds like it could be pretty damn cool.

Update: THR just confirmed a whole handful of additional actors. In addition to Messina, Devil will star Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O'Hara, Jacob Vargas, Matt Craven, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Geoffrey Arend and Caroline Dhavernas. Quite a large cast for what seems like a small horror production.

Filed under Casting, Movie News

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