Although he didn’t end up in Marvel’s Thor, Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard has booked a lead role in another big movie. Heat Vision reports that Skarsgard, son of actor Stellan Skarsgard, has signed on to star in Universal’s Battleship movie, based on the Hasbro board game and being directed by Peter Berg (The Rundown, The Kingdom, Hancock). Skarsgard will star as a “straight and narrow” naval officer whom Taylor Kitsch, who has cast in this a few months ago, idolizes (military hierarchy at play). This is Skarsgard’s first major studio role since starring in True Blood and, as long as everything goes to plan, it should be big.

Battleship isn’t even slated for release until May of 2012, so we have a long time to wait, but Peter Berg is preparing to shoot this in August down in Hawaii. Although based on the board game, this Battleship movie, written by Jon and Erich Hoeber (Whiteout, Red), sees an international fleet of various battleships coming together to fight a water-bound armada of “otherworldly origin” – as in some aliens who have some crazy ships that dance along the top of the water like bugs. I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about this project as it continues to cast and move towards to start of production. Stay tuned for updates. Anyone excited?

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