Mojean Aria with Marilee Talkington in ‘See.’
Mojean Aria is in the midst of filming the biggest role of his career in a Warner Bros sci-fi thriller alongside one of his heroes in Hugh Jackman, plus Rebecca Ferguson, Thandie Newton, Cliff Curtis and Daniel Wu.
Jackman stars in Reminiscence as Nicolas Bannister, a war veteran living in a near-future Miami flooded by rising seas who has a special power: offering clients the chance to relive any memory they desire.
His life changes when he meets and embarks on a passionate affair with Ferguson’s Mae. But when another client’s memories implicate Mae in a series of violent crimes, he must uncover the truth about the woman he fell for.
Shooting in New Orleans, the film marks the directing debut of Westworld executive producer Lisa Joy, who wrote the screenplay and is producing with her Kilter Film partner Jonathan Nolan as a co-production with Michael De Luca Productions and FilmNation Entertainment.
Contractually Aria isn’t allowed to say anything about his character but he’s effusive about working with Jackman, whom he met when he was first nominated for the Heath Ledger Scholarship, which he subsequently won in 2017.
Jackman’s photo adorned the front page of scrapbook of his favourite actors he kept as a boy.
Aria, 27, snagged the part after his breakthrough role in See, an Apple TV+ series created by Peaky Blinder’s Steven Knight which is set 600 years in the future after a virus has wiped out most of the human race and left the survivors blind.
Only a pair of twins are born with the power of sight. Aquaman’s Jason Momoa plays the twins’ father with Alfre Woodard as the spiritual leader of the tribe.
Mojean plays Gether Bax, a disloyal member of the tribe in the series produced by Chernin Entertainment and directed by Hunger Games‘ Francis Lawrence.
Movement coach Paradox Pollack with Aria on the ‘See’ set.
Before that he teamed with Momoa in The Last Manhunt, an Indigenous retelling of Robert Redford’s classic 1970 Western Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, directed by Christian Camargo with Redford’s blessing.
The son of Iranian immigrants, the former NIDA and Metro Screen Film School screenwriting student left Australia for the US when he was 20 because there were few if any roles available for actors with names like his.
He happily returned to appear with Rachel Griffiths and Yoson An in Subtext Pictures’ SBS miniseries Dead Lucky directed by David Caesar.
Similarly, he was thrilled to be asked to play an Australian war hero in Kriv Stenders’ Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan.
Mojean has formed Mystic Makers, a production collective committed to diverse storytelling and is developing a slate of features and TV series.
In late 2018 he optioned Stuart Thomas’ screenplay Thief of Sleep, the saga of young, closeted gay man who faces persecution in Iran and flees to his distant family in Scotland. Adapting to a new culture, he falls in love but his freedom and life are threatened when his asylum case is rejected.
Darwin Serink, who wrote and directed the 2014 short film Aban and Khorshid, a gay romance in which he starred, has come on board as the director and co-writer.
He’ll play the lead with shooting due to start in Scotland in March, produced by Chelsea Winstanley (Jojo Rabbit) and Tommee May (Beast of No Nations).
Before that he hopes to star in Organic Mirrors, playing a ranger who searches for a girl lost in the forest in Hawaii, the feature directing debut of DOP and TVC director Etienne Aurelius.