Brendan Fraser was a major cinematic force throughout the ’90s, tackling exciting projects in virtually every single genre. From comedies like Encino Man and Airheads to rom-coms like Mrs. Winterbourne and Blast from the Past, audiences couldn’t get enough of him. One of his biggest roles was starring as Rick O’Connell in The Mummy, a more action-adventure take on the classic Universal Monster. Despite that success, he largely stepped away from Hollywood in the late 2000s and through much of the 2010s, citing various physical and emotional struggles he faced, as well as revealing he had been sexually assaulted by a figure in Hollywood.
His comeback started relatively innocuously, but with his 2022 movie The Whale earning him a Best Actor Oscar, it confirmed he was back in a major way. In addition to the highly anticipated The Mummy 4 being in the works, the actor also has the sci-fi thriller Starman on the way. That movie will actually unite him with another familiar face from the ’90s.
Deadline reports that Starman has added Jeff Daniels to its cast, who ’90s fans might remember from things like Dumb & Dumber and Speed. Daniels has been a prominent fixture of both the big and small screens over the decades, starring in projects like The Newsroom, The Morning Show, Black Bird, and also appearing in Ridley Scott’s The Martian. No matter what the role or genre, Daniels is always a welcome presence in any project who always elevates the experience.
HBO
Deadline describes the upcoming Starman, “Tom Adams (Fraser) is an architect of the future who launches a historic expedition to Mars, positioning himself at the forefront of humanity’s next great frontier. But when unforeseen events strand him millions of miles from Earth, his mission becomes an urgent race against time — driven not by survival alone, but by love.” Daniels is set to play Ed Watkins, who is described as being “the protective and powerful co-leader of a transformational company he built alongside visionary technologist Tom Adams, a man who means far more to Ed than the company itself.”
Based on this description, it sounds as though there are some commonalities between Starman and Daniels’ previous movie The Martian. That movie similarly saw someone trapped on Mars, with Daniels playing the head of NASA, having to do his best to try to rescue the stranded astronaut while also mitigating the various risks involved in any salvation mission. The description of his character in Starman, however, sounds as though he has a much stronger emotional connection to the protagonist, allowing the actor to showcase a different side of himself than seen in The Martian.
Josh Wakely writes and directs Starman and David S. Goyer, writer of DC movies like Batman Begins, Man of Steel, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as well as writer of the Blade trilogy, is one of Starman’s producers.
Birthname
Jeffrey Warren Daniels
Birthdate
February 19, 1955
Birthplace
Athens, Georgia, USA