EXCLUSIVE: Catherine Laga’aia, star of Disney’s live-action Moana, and Deacon Phillippe (Brother Save Us) are set to star in Spaceship Earth, the new Disney+ pilot inspired by the Disney World EPCOT attraction of the same name.
Character details are being kept under wraps. The project, announced in August, hails from Jason Fuchs (IT: Welcome To Derry), Michael Waldron (Loki) and 20th Television.
In Spaceship Earth, when a mission to avert an imminent global cataclysm goes awry, a small band of teenagers from Earth’s past and future must join forces to confront a threat as vast and mysterious as time itself.
Fuchs and Waldron wrote the pilot, with Fuchs serving as showrunner and exec producing via Five Ten Productions. Waldron is also exec producing, along with pilot director Lee Toland Krieger, Adam Fishbach of Fishbach Productions, and Adam Fasullo of Anomaly Pictures.
Laga’aia landed the title role opposite Dwayne Johnson in Moana following a worldwide casting search; the film released to over $323M in worldwide grosses this summer. Previously, the Australian actress co-starred in Prime Video’s limited series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. Next year, she’ll be seen leading the thriller Crashout from filmmaker Nick Annas. She is repped by CAA, Venture Entertainment Partners, The Agency at AIPA, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Phillippe is currently in production on Better Than the Movies, an anticipated Netflix rom-com based on the bestselling YA novel by Lynn Painter. Previously, he wrapped his first leading role in Brother Save Us, an indie drama from Jesse Behrenwald. Also to be seen coming up in Frankie Shaw’s Miramax flick 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, he is repped by CAA, LBI Entertainment, and Ziffren Brittenham.