Aussie actors Luke Bracey and Brenton Thwaites vying for “Need for Speed” lead

Dreamworks is gearing up for its big screen adaptation of video game “Need for Speed”, and are testing young actors for the lead role. Via Variety’s Jeff Sneider on Twitter, we know two of the relative unknowns reading for the unspecified role: Australian actors Luke Bracey and Brenton Thwaites.

Brothers George Gatins and John Gatins developed the original story which is based on the entire Electronic Arts video game franchise, rather than one specific game. According to the press release, it will be “a fast-paced, high-octane film rooted in the tradition of the great car culture films of the 70s while being extremely faithful to the spirit of the video game franchise.” Scott Waugh is attached to direct, with a tentative early 2013 shoot planned, for a projected 2014 release.

Bracey, an alum of famous Aussie soap and starmaker “Home and Away”, played Leighton Meester’s love interest in rom com “Monte Carlo”, and also was shortlisted for Roland Emmerich’s now dead sci-fi project “Singularity.” Thwaites, who recently appeared in the TV Movie reboot “Blue Lagoon: The Awakening”, is currently filming the role of the Prince opposite Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty redo “Maleficent.”