Confined to a dark and squalid Room in 2015, Jacob Tremblay stole the hearts of moviegoers with a raw, emotional turn in Lenny Abrahamson’s award-winning drama. It’s a performance that hasn’t gone unnoticed, either, what with the young actor in line to play the lead in Stephen Chbosky’s Wonder.
Best known for helming The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Chbosky’s latest will have Tremblay headlining another adaptation, given that Wonder is lifted from the critically-adorned novel penned by R.J. Palacio. In it, the youngster will take point as August Pullman, a schoolboy plagued by an extraordinary facial deformity, and The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Julia Roberts has been tapped for the role of Tremblay’s mother.
In attendance at Cannes to promote Jodie Foster’s crime drama Money Monster, the casting of Roberts is a major coup for Lionsgate and Mandeville’s picture, and if Tremblay’s mother-son chemistry with Brie Larson in Room is any indication, we could be in for something, ahem, wonderful come 2017.
Ensuring Stephen Chbosky’s final feature is an emotional roller coaster, screenwriter Steve Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness) has been elected to adapt Palacio’s beloved novel for the screen. Below, you’ll find a brief synopsis of the defining journey that awaits Tremblay’s troubled student:
August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face.
As Wonder begins to pick up steam, look for Julia Roberts to star alongside George Clooney et al. when Money Monster opens next Friday, May 13.