Director M. Night Shyamalan poses for a portrait during a press day promoting his new film "The Happening" in New York, June 9, 2008. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Aasif Mandvi, Shaun Toub, Cliff Curtis and Keong Sim have joined the cast of M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender.”
They join Noah Ringer -- who plays the title role -- Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone and “Slumdog Millionaire’s” Dev Patel in the Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies project, which is based on the popular anime-inspired Nickelodeon TV series.
The live-action feature is scheduled for 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 (“The Daily Show With Jon Stewart”) will play the Fire Nation’s Commander Zhao, Curtis (“A Thousand Words”) will play the Fire Lord Ozai, and Toub (“Iron Man”) is cast as 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.