District 9 Star Sharlto Copley Joins I Am Number Four

Sharlto Copley, better known as the star ofDistrict 9and the upcomingA-Teambig screen movie adaptation, is in talks to star in Dreamworks’Michael Bay/Steven Spielberg-producedD.J. Caruso-directed teen sci-fi alien adaptationI Am Number Four.

He will joinAlex Rider: Operation StormbreakerandBeastlystarAlex Pettyfer, who is set to play the lead character – Four. According toHeatVision, Copley will be playing the man who “hailed from the alien world’s serving class but now is the title character’s adult guardian and mentor.” I was one of a few people that actually thought Copley deserved a Best Actor nomination for his performance inDistrict 9, so I’m glad to see his career didn’t stop there.

The screenplay adaptation was written bySmallvillecreatorsAl GoughandMiles Millar, which kind of makes sense if you think about it (teenage aliens that fall from space to earth?). Caruso is of course the director responsible forTaking Lives, The Salton Sea, Two for the Moneyand more recently,DisturbiaandEagle Eye. Bay has previously been developing the project as a potential directing gig.

Here’s the plot of the novel:

I AM NUMBER FOUR focuses on the fate of nine gifted children and their guardians, the sole survivors of a bitter war on their home planet called Lorien, who have settled on Earth under the protection of a charm that means their enemies can only kill them in numeric order. Three of the nine are dead; the novel’s narrator is number Four. The nine children and their guardians evacuate to earth and the protagonist, a Lorien boy named John Smith, hides in Paradise, Ohio, as a human and tries to evade his predators.

The first book of the plannedfoursixbook series written byA Million Little PiecesauthorJames FreyandJobie Hughes, is set to hit book store shelves on August 17th, 2010. You can now preorder the 352-page book onAmazonfor around $11-$12. The project was fast tracked after the release and success ofDistrict 9. Dreamworks has set a February 18th 2011 release date for the movie.