District 9's Sharlto Copley Joining Spielberg Produced Film I AM NUMBER FOUR

District 9 star Sharlto Copley is currently in talks to star in the Steven Spielberg/Michael Bay produced, D.J. Caruso directed sci-fi alien film I Am Number Four. He will join the already cast Alex Pettyfer, who will play the lead teen character in the film, who is one of nine aliens that escape their home planet before its annihilation by a rival species and hide out on Earth disguised as human high schoolers. Copley will play a man who's hailed from the alien world's serving class but now is the title character's adult guardian and mentor.

The film is based on a planned six-book series to be introduced this fall written by Jamey Frey and Jobie Hughes. Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar adapted the script to the DreamWorks produced movie. The director of the film, D.J. Caruso is the same guy that brought us films such as Taking Lives, The Salton Sea, Disturbia and Eagle Eye. 

Here's the description of the book:

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.

Copley is a fun actor to watch up on screen. The next movie you will get to see him in is the upcoming action-packed adaptation of The A-Team as Howling Mad Murdock, and he looks absolutely hilarious. I think it's awesome that his career is taking off like it is.