Christina Hendricks joins Drive

Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Drive is gearing up for production, and his increasingly impressive cast is beginning to rival Inception‘s “dream team” of actors.

Mad Men‘s Christina Hendricks is the newest addition to the action thriller. She joins Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks and Oscar Isaac.

The news of Hendricks’ involvement comes from Variety, although her role in the indie pic is unknown at this point. Regardless, it’s great to see Hendricks make the transition from TV to film. She’s one of the best actors on Mad Men (if not the best), which is saying something. She brings grace, humour, pathos and understated power to the role of uber-secretary Joan Holloway.

According to Variety, the plot of Drive is as follows:

“Based on James Sallis’ crime novel of the same name and adapted by scribe Hossein Amini, “Drive” revolves around a Hollywood stunt drive (Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver in L.A.’s criminal underworld. He finds himself a target after agreeing to aid the ex-con boyfriend of his beautiful neighbour (Mulligan) in a job that goes dangerously awry. The only way he can keep her safe and stay alive is to do what he does best: drive.”

Albert Brooks will star as the film’s antagonist; Cranston and Isaac’s roles are as yet unknown.

Drive begins shooting September 25th, 2010, with a release set for 2011.

Discuss: Seriously, this is a great cast.