Although I've never watched the show myself, according to its recent Golden Globe nomination for Best Television Series Drama, as well as the outstanding coverage provided to us by our sister site TV Squad, Heroes is a pretty popular program with you folks at home. And, part of that popularity is due to Masi Oka's performance as Hiro Nakamura -- a "Tokyo nonconformist computer/anime enthusiast who develops a way to pierce the space-time continuum and move back in time through sheer will power," so says the show's official website.
Well, the CGI artist-turned-actor (did you know he was a CGI artist on films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and the Star Wars trilogy?) is now making his way to the big screen (and in front of the cameras for a change), as Oka is in talks to co-star in the Kevin Spacey-produced 21. Based off Ben Mezrich's book Bringing Down the House, film will tell the true story of how six M.I.T. whiz kids traveled to Vegas hell-bent on coming up with a way (mastering the art of counting cards) to take back with them as much money as they could. Robert Luketic will direct (now that he's officially done with Dallas) and Jim Sturgess will star in the lead role. Oka can also be seen in the upcoming Balls of Fury.
1. The story of the M.I.T. kids was also adapted (loosely) into the fun Canadian flick The Last Casino.
Appropriately enough, considering this is mostly about the casting, one of the three card-counters in that flick was a dorky, video-game-obsessed Chinese guy.
Posted at 9:00PM on Jan 2nd 2007 by Kim