Olivia Wilde continues her takeover of Hollywood by adding another highly coveted female lead to her growing resume. Deadline reports Wilde will portray onetime supermodel Suzy Miller in Ron Howard’s racing biopic “Rush” opposite Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt and Daniel Bruhl as Niki Lauda, whose rivalry set the Formula One racing world aflame in the 1970s.
The film, scripted by Peter Morgan, chronicles the two men’s fight for dominance in the sport in the 1970′s. Hunt went on to win the 1976 title, while Lauda, who won the World Championship three times, crashed in a near-fatal accident in the same race. Wilde’s Miller falls for and marries Hemsworth’s Hunt, but the relationship is short-lived as she soon falls for his actor friend, Richard Burton. Burton then proceeded to pay Miller’s legal fees in her divorce proceedings, freeing her up to marry him shortly after. Deadline reports Howard is keen to get Russell Crowe to cameo as Burton.
The hard working Wilde will be seen in Jennifer Garner’s ensemble comedy “Butter” and opposite Justin Timberlake in Andrew Niccol’s “In Time”, along with family dramas “Welcome to People” with Chris Pine and “Blackbird” with Eric Bana. She’s also scheduled to shoot “Better Living Through Chemistry” opposite Sam Rockwell this fall and may or may not still be a contender for the last remaining female lead opposite Tom Cruise in the sci-fi epic previously known as “Horizons.” Jessica Chastain landed the first female lead a couple of weeks ago.
Behold the power of a great breakout moment. When Jason Bateman first began producing comedy “ID Theft” as a starring vehicle for himself and another actor, the script called for one guy to steal another’s identity. But after Bateman saw Melissa McCarthy’s scene-stealing turn as an aggressive future sister-in-law in the recent monster hit “Bridesmaids”, he pushed for the role to be rewritten for her to be the identity thief instead. 
