Mads Mikkelsen in talks to play villain in 'Chaos Walking'

PanARMENIAN.Net - Mads Mikkelsen is going back to his evil ways.

After a turn as the heroic and reluctant scientist who designs the Death Star in Rogue One, the actor is in negotiations to make life hard for Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland in Lionsgate's post-apocalyptic thriller Chaos Walking, The Hollywood Reporter reveals.

Doug Liman is directing the project, an adaptation of the best-selling YA novel by Patrick Ness.

The story takes place on a colony planet where almost all women have been killed by a virus and all living creatures can hear one another's thoughts in a stream of images, words and sounds called Noise. The cacophony drives many mad until a young man (Holland) makes a silent discovery: There is a girl (Ridley) who may be the key to unlocking the New World's many layered secrets.

Mikkelsen will play the ruthless mayor of Prentisstown who is searching for the young man he once mentored and who is a religiously minded keeper of his own secrets and is planning to expand his reach.

The movie is set to begin shooting later this summer in Montreal.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) worked on the script, as did Jamie Linden (Money Monster). Doug Davison, who produced the Liman-directed Tom Cruise starrer Mena, is producing alongside Allison Shearmur (Rogue One, Cinderella).

Mikkelsen starred as the evil Hannibal Lecter on NBC's Hannibal. In addition to Rogue One, he also appeared in Marvel's Doctor Strange last year, playing the antagonist opposite Benedict Cumberbatch.