Christopher Nolan's Interstellar Adds Character Actor Bill Irwin

Character actor Bill Irwin has built a long career of out strong supporting roles since making his first appearance back in 1980 (in Robert Altman's Popeye, no less). And it would seem that his years of work caught the eye of director Christopher Nolan, as the filmmaker has just cast the actor in his next film.

The Wrap is reporting that Irwin is the latest actor to join the cast of Interstellar, the epic space-set sci-fi adventure that's currently moving through pre-production. As we previously reported, Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine have all signed on for parts in the film, though the plot is still largely being kept underwraps. Based on a script written by Nolan's brother Jonathan and then rewritten by the director, it's been said that the film is about a group of scientists who travel through a wormhole and is based on the work of Kip Thorne, a physicist, relativity expert and all-around incredibly smart dude over at Caltech. The site doesn't have any details about the character that Irwin will play in the story, but that's been the case for every casting report about this particular project. Production on the film should commence in the next few months, as Paramount and Warner Bros. are teaming up to have it in theaters on November 7, 2014.

Irwin has most recently been starring on the David E. Kelley medical drama Monday Mornings, with co-stars Ving Rhames and Alfred Molina, though the show was cancelled last month. His last film role was in Vera Farmiga's 2011 directorial debut Higher Ground.

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