Former Drake and Josh star Josh Peck just landed a movie role that could change the way everyone sees him. Peck was cast in Oppenheimer, the upcoming all-star biopic about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. The film will be directed by The Dark Knight filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
Peck was cast as scientist Kenneth Bainbridge, reports Variety. Bainbridge was a real scientist who worked with Oppenheimer on the Manhattan Project, the code name for the research and development project that led to the creation of the first nuclear weapons used by the U.S. in Japan to end World War II. Bainbridge is famous for telling Oppenheimer “Now we are all sons of bitches” after the July 16, 1945 Trinity nuclear test. After the war, he Bainbridge dedicated his life to ending the testing of nuclear weapons. He died in 1996 at age 91.
Videos by PopCulture.com
Oppenheimer will star Cillian Murphy, who worked with Nolan on the Dark Knight movies and Dunkirk, in the title role. Murphy’s A-list supporting cast includes Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife, Katherine; Matt Damon as Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves; Robert Downey Jr. as founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Lewis Strauss; and Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock. Rami Malek, Benny Sadfie, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, Kenneth Branagh, Jason Clarke, and James D’Arcy will also star.
Nolan’s film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, which Nolan is adapting himself. It is scheduled to hit theaters on July 31, 2023.
This will be Nolan’s first project with Universal Pictures. Before this, all of his movies from Insomnia (2002) onwards were financed or distributed by Warner Bros. Nolan disagreed with the studio’s mishandled release of Tenet (2020), so when he began developing Oppenheimer, he fielded interest from other studios. Eventually, Universal won out and agreed to a unique deal. The production budget is set at $100 million, and it will be exclusive to theaters for at least 100 days.
Peck rose to fame on The Amanda Show and Drake and Josh, which both aired on Nickelodeon. He recently starred on Disney+’s Turner and Hooch, which was based on the Tom Hanks movie. He also stars in Hulu’s How I Met Your Father. He is also joining Miranda Cosgrove in iCarly Season 2 and stars in Netflix’s 13: the Musical with Debra Messing.
