According to Variety, Kevin Costner (Man of Steel, Black or White) has joined Taraji P. Henson (“Empire,” “Person of Interest”) and Academy Award-winner Octavia Spencer (The Help, Insurgent) in the 1960’s-set space drama Hidden Figures. The movie will reunite Costner with his Black or White co-star Spencer. They both earned critical praise for their roles in that racial drama.
Costner will play the head of the NASA space program in Hidden Figures, which revolves around Katherine Johnson (Henson), a brilliant African-American mathematician who, along with colleagues Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson, served as key mathematical minds behind the historic launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit as he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
Adapted from Margot Lee Shetterly’s forthcoming book Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, the screenplay is by Allison Schroeder (Mean Girls 2). Hidden Figures will be directed and produced by Ted Melfi (St. Vincent), with Chernin Entertainment and Donna Gigliotti of Levantine Films also producing.
Costner will next be seen in the action-thriller Criminal, which opens on April 15.
