'Ghost Draft' Hoping To Draft Betty Gilpin And J.K. Simmons Alongside Chris Pratt

Ghost Draft, a sci-fi thriller featuring alien invasions, time travel, and Chris Pratt, is looking to add a few new cast members: Betty Gilpin, J.K. Simmons, and Sam Richardson. Gilpin and Richardson's roles remain a secret, but Simmons would likely be playing Pratt's father. Chris McKay, the filmmaker behind The LEGO Batman Movie, is directing from a script by Zach Dean.

Chris Pratt hasn't had the best of luck in live-action films outside of the Marvel or Jurassic Park universes. Perhaps Ghost Draft will do the trick? Pratt is set to star in the sci-fi thriller as "a man drafted to fight in a future war where the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront his past." When the project was first announced back in February, it was described as "grounded sci-fi" – make of that what you will! This all sounds vaguely like Edge of Tomorrow, aka Live. Die. Repeat.

THR reports that J.K. Simmons to join the project as Pratt's father, and Variety adds the GLOW's Betty Gilpin is also in talks for an undisclosed role. Deadline adds that VEEP actor Sam Richardson has also joined the cast. Like Gilpin, we don't know who he's playing

Simmons and Gilpin are both excellent actors. I'll confess I'm unfamiliar with Richardson's work because I'm one of the few people who didn't watch VEEP. And Pratt...uh, well, he's fine, I guess. Chris McKay will direct, and that's a plus – people dug McKay's LEGO Batman Movie. The outlier here is the script, from Zach Dean. Dean's credits include the forgotten 2012 thriller Deadfall and the absolutely terrible direct-to-VOD action flick 24 Hours to Live. Those aren't very promising titles, but to be fair, Hollywood loves to chew up the work screenwriters do, and then spit it out. For all I know, Dean's 24 Hours to Live script started off great until a producer came in and said, "Hey – what if we made this bad instead?"

David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Jules Daly, Adam Kolbrenner and David Goyer are all producing the project. Rob Cowan will executive producing, and Samantha Nisenboim will co-produce. In addition to Pratt and the newly announced cast members, The Handmaid's Tale actress Yvonne Strahovski is also in the film.