Fans of The Wolf of Wall Street and Pan Am apologists are undoubtedly excited to hear that we’ll be getting much more Margot Robbie in our lives very soon. The 23-year-old Aussie, now best known for portraying Jordan Belfort’s fun wife, is racking up the roles left and right during Wolf’s Oscar run after getting just recognition for her fantastic performance.
While Robbie is already filming Focus, a “con artist comedy” costarring Will Smith, and starring alongside Michelle Williams in Suite Francaise, she’s got two other films coming down the pipeline that will serve to show off her range of acting chops in a couple different genres: David Yates’ Tarzan and Craig Zobel’s Z for Zachariah.
Tarzan – no, not that weird CGI German 3D one starring Kellan Lutz, the other one – has sent Robbie to the jungles as their new Jane, opposite Alexander Skarsgard as the titular apeman who may or may not be wearing a teensy tiny loincloth in the new incarnation of the classic tale. The search for the perfect Jane Porter was the last cog in putting together the film, which has long been in production, in a role that had been rumored to be favored for bigger heavyhitters like Jessica Chastain and Emma Stone. Nuh-uh, it’s Naomi from Bayside.
Jane, the civilized, prim and proper lady who wins the heart of the King of the Jungle, is one of literature’s more well-known heroines, and one who has been adapted numerous times for stage and screen, animated and live action alike; Robbie has the look and the charisma to pull off the part. Besides, we already know she has what it takes to deal with a petulant manchild who barely knows how to act like a human being. Piece of cake.
Z for Zachariah, based on the novel by Robert C. O’Brien, is a bit less high-spirited than the promise of animal friends and vine-swinging. Robbie will star as a woman who believes she’s the last person left alive after a nuclear apocalypse devastates the earth. That belief is quickly shattered when two strangers wander onto her farm (Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor) and out of the surrounding forest. What those strangers’ presence mean for Robbie’s character is yet to be known, but it’s enough to promise a dark and disturbing psychological thriller – a little different than what we’ve seen so far from the actress.
Thank God Pan Am got canceled. Even though it would’ve been nice to see Laura end up with Ted the pilot. Oh no, guys please don’t tell anyone I watched Pan Am.