Emma Watson is set to become a tech wizard as she has officially signed on to the movie adaptation of Dave Eggers’ book, ‘The Circle,’ which sheds light on the dangers of various forms of technology.
The wizarding world, where Watson’s Hermione Granger character in the ‘Harry Potter’ series gave her acting career a significant boost, rejected all concepts of technology.
On the other hand, the upcoming film adaptation of ‘The Circle’ will see the 25-year-old actress as a recent college graduate who lands a job at a thriving Internet monopoly known as the Circle. It offers a dynamic campus as well as impressive amenities for its employees.
After going up the ranks rather quickly, Watson’s character discovers herself to be in the middle of a company that connects “users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.”
Written and helmed by James Ponsoldt, who previously worked on ‘The Spectacular Now,’ the tech thriller is expected to dig deeper into “the perils of life in a digital age where personal data is collected, sifted and monetized and used for surveillance, rendering privacy obsolete,” as stated in a press release for the upcoming movie.
Actor Tom Hanks, who is producing the film, will also appear in the movie; however, his role is yet to be announced.
Although the corporation mentioned in ‘The Circle’ can be likened to Google and Facebook, Eggers pointed out that he has set his story in the near future, at a business firm that has counted in “all the big companies around today.”
The author also mentioned that he did not pay a visit to the company’s campus or strike a conversation with any of their workers while conducting research for his book.
Issuing a statement released this week, Ponsoldt pointed to Watson’s intelligence as a key factor for selecting her for the part.
“Emma Watson is one of my favorite actors, and her incredible talent, sensitivity, and deep intelligence will bring an electric energy to ‘The Circle’,” the director shared.
Watson is set to begin filming this September, after wrapping up her duties as Belle in the live-action adaptation of ‘Beauty and the Beast’, which also stars ‘Downton Abbey’ actor Dan Stevens as Beast.
‘The Circle’ had been the first fictional literary work created by Eggers, who is widely recognized for his memoir ‘A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.’
