Olafur Darri Olafsson, who appeared in the first season of “True Detective,” has been cast as one of the witches battling Vin Diesel in Lionsgate’s supernatural action movie “The Last Witch Hunter,” TheWrap has learned.
Breck Eisner is directing from a script by Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, based on a pitch by Cory Goodman. D.W. Harper and Melisa Wallack also worked on the script.
Diesel stars as an immortal witch hunter who partners with his natural enemy, a female witch, to stop the covens of NYC from unleashing a plague on humanity.
Also read: ‘True Detective’ Plot Details Emerge; Vince Vaughn in Talks, Elisabeth Moss Circling
Michael Caine, Elijah Wood and “Game of Thrones” actress Rose Leslie co-star in the movie, which Lionsgate will distribute in North America through its Summit Entertainment label.
Mark Canton, Bernie Goldmann and Diesel are producing the movie, while Diesel’s One Race partner Samantha Vincent will executive produce with Adam Goldworm.
Erik Feig, Geoff Shaevitz and Matthew Janzen are overseeing the project for the studio, which will start production this month in Pittsburgh.
Also read: Elijah Wood Joins Vin Diesel in ‘The Last Witch Hunter’
Diesel will be the latest movie star to share the screen with Olafsson, who recently worked with Mark Wahlberg in “Contraband,” Ben Stiller in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and Liam Neeson in Scott Frank’s upcoming thriller “A Walk Among the Tombstones.” He also starred in Baltasar Kormakur’s “The Deep” and appeared in multiple episodes of Alan Ball’s Cinemax series “Banshee.”
Additionally, Olafsson shot a recurring role in Charlie Kaufman’s FX pilot “How & Why” and he previously played one of the leads in Jonathan Demme’s AMC pilot “Line of Sight,” where his role was written specifically for him.
Olafsson is represented by APA and Conway van Gelder Grant.