Now this makes things very interesting, indeed.  Another surprise name has been announced to the cast of The Twilight Saga: New Moon—and, personally, it’s a very unlikely name: Michael Sheen.

British actor Sheen has been announced to play Aro, the leader of the Italy-based vampire pack Volturi in the upcoming sequel, which hits screens on November 20.   The actor was last known for his role as British interviewer David Frost in the film Frost/Nixon, which was recently nominated for a Best Picture nod in this year’s Oscars.   He also played former Prime Minister Tony Blair in The Queen, which top bills Helen Mirren. However, this wouldn’t be the first time he plays a supernatural character in films: he appeared as a werewolf in all three Underworld films.

Sheen’s casting, personally, is a surprise simply because I didn’t expect him to be in New Moon.  But, with the previous announcement of Dakota Fanning—herself a big name in acting, with success critical and commercial—taking on a role, I shouldn’t be.   I can’t help but pin this news on what seems to be an effort by the folks behind the Twilight films to be taken seriously, though.

I’m not saying that Twilight is fluff.   Some may say it is, all right—a vampire love story?—but nobody can deny that it’s a cultural revolution of sorts now.  $380 million in worldwide ticket sales is not an easy figure to attain, after all.   The first film had relatively obscure names populating its entire cast, understandable for the efforts of a small film studio getting its hands on a publishing phenomenon.   All of a sudden, it has the clout to attract the big names—Fanning and Sheen, for instance.

And Sheen is a good actor, although I’ll admit to having seen him only in Laws of Attraction and Frost/Nixon.  It’d be interesting to see how this translates to his role in New Moon.




-Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Variety
(Image courtesy of PR Photos)