Casting News: Sean Bean joins The Martian & Dead Rising finds its Frank West

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

THR has learned Sean Bean has been cast in the upcoming Ridley Scott movie THE MARTIAN. Bean will play a NASA flight director in Scott's adaptation of the Andy Weir novel, and will star alongside Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kate Mara, Kristen Wiig and Michael Pena. THE MARTIAN will follow Damon's Mark Watney, an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars after a disaster. Sean Bean might actually make it to the end of the movie since he's playing a NASA flight director, but because it is Sean Bean, his character will probably have a heart attack and die right before the credits start to roll.

Moving on from space and Mars to zombies and video game adaptations, it's being reported Rob Riggle (The Daily Show, 22 JUMP STREET) will star in Zach Lipovsky's (LEPRECHAUN: ORIGINS) DEAD RISING: WATCHTOWER, and he'll be playing photo-journalist Frank West. Aleks Paunovic (THIS MEANS WAR) and Keegan Connor Tracy (Once Upon a Time) have also been cast in the film, joining previously announced cast members Virginia Madsen, Dennis Haysbert, Jesse Metcalfe and Meghan Ory. Filming has already begun on DEAD RISING: WATCHTOWER, and Legendary’s Digital Media division has released the first image from the project.

THE MARTIAN is scheduled to open on November 25, 2015, and DEAD RISING: WATCHTOWER will debut on Crackle before being released on SVOD, DVD, VOD and TV.