Four more land 'Airbender' roles
M. Night Shyamalan's pic based on anime-inspired series
By Jay A. Fernandez
March 15, 2009, 05:50 PM ET
Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub, Cliff Curtis and Keong Sim have joined the cast of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies.
They join Noah Ringer -- who plays the title role -- Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone and "Slumdog Millionaire's" Dev Patel in the movie based on the popular anime-inspired Nickelodeon TV series.
The live-action feature is being produced by Shyamalan, Sam Mercer and Frank Marshall. The shoot is scheduled to begin in this month for a release on July 2, 2010.
In the film, the four nations -- Air, Water, Earth and Fire -- are in turmoil as the Fire Nation wages war on the others. Aang (Ringer) is the lone Avatar who can manipulate all four elements and possibly restore peace to their world.
Mandvi is set to play the Fire Nation's Commander Zhao, Curtis will play the Fire Lord Ozai, and Toub is Uncle Iroh, a retired Fire Nation general. Sim will play Earthbending Father.
Shyamalan has signed to shoot the first feature in a planned trilogy, to which Paramount has budgeted $250 million. The martial arts-heavy series is set to film in Greenland and Vietnam.
Curtis ("A Thousand Words") and Toub ("Iron Man") are repped by Abrams Artists Agency, Mandvi ("The Daily Show With Jon Stewart") is repped by Endeavor and Sweet 180 Management, and Sim is repped by Judy Boals in New York.
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