Taylor Kitsch will climb into Pete Berg's battleship -- UPDATED

Taylor Kitsch will climb into Pete Berg’s battleship -- UPDATED

April 7, 2010 8:05 PM PT

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EXCLUSIVE: A key hole in Universal’s ‘Battleship’ has been filled: Taylor Kitsch is coming on to star as Hopper, one of the lead parts in the high-profile nautical action-adventure.

Kitsch, who stars as the title character in the upcoming action film ‘John Carter of Mars,’ is best known for his part as football player Tim Riggings in the TV series ‘Friday Night Lights,’ with which ‘Battleship’ director Pete Berg was heavily involved. More shortly.

UPDATED -- 12:32 AM: Hopper isn’t simply one of the lead parts -- it’s the lead part. The character is a young naval officer who, we’re told, leads the humans’ battle against the invading aliens. Yes, there are aliens -- this isn’t exactly the ‘B-9? You sunk my battleship’ version. More casting to come, though it’ll be a while before you can see the movie: it doesn’t come out until May 2012. That should give you almost enough time to finish a full game of Battleship.

--Steven Zeitchik

Photo: Kitsch in Friday Night Lights. Credit: NBC Universal Television

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Steven Zeitchik

Steven Zeitchik is a former Los Angeles Times staff writer who covered film and the larger world of Hollywood for the paper from 2009 to 2017, exploring the personalities, issues, content and consequences of both the creative and business (and, increasingly, digital) aspects of our screen entertainment. He previously covered entertainment beats at Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, has contributed arts and culture pieces to the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times and has done journalistic tours of duty in Jerusalem and Berlin. While at The Times he has also reported stories in cities ranging from Cairo to Krakow, though Hollywood can still seem like the most exotic destination of all.