Two relatively unknown young actresses are about to get a big boost to their profile in Hollywood. Variety reports British actress Andrea Riseborough and former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko have landed the highly coveted female leads opposite Tom Cruise in the sci-fi epic formerly titled “Oblivion” (and then “Horizons”). Jessica Chastain had been offered one of the roles, but as previously reported, had to pass when she committed to doing Kathryn Bigelow’s “Kill Bin Laden”, which films at the same time. Kurylenko and Riseborough beat out just about every other young actress for their roles, including Olivia Wilde, Brit Marling and Noomi Rapace.

“Tron: Legacy” helmer Joseph Kosinski directs the film about a man named Jack who lives in the clouds above the earth and goes down to the surface to repair drones that keep the planet safe from an alien race that has practically wiped out the human race. The two female leads are Julia, Jack’s wife, and Victoria, a beautiful mysterious woman who crash lads in an escape pod and leads him to question everything he knows. No word on who will play which character, but the presumption had always been that Chastain would play the wife, so it stands to reason – via the wording in Variety’s report – that Kurylenko will be taking over that role while Riseborough would play the mysterious intruder. Filming begins soon with a release date already set for a July 19, 2013.

Riseborough stars as Wallis Simpson in Madonna’s much talked about “W.E.” and is headed to Sundance next week to premiere James Marsh’s Irish spy thriller “Shadow Dancer.” Kurylenko played the female lead opposite Daniel Craig in “Quantum of Solace” and has appeared to escape the Bond Girl curse with a promising career post-Bond. She is a part of Terrence Malick’s next untitled film (working under the title “The Burial”), also starring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams, and is currently filming “Seven Psychopaths” opposite Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson and Abbie Cornish.