Taylor Kitsch is becoming David Koresh and then a terrorist... on film.

Taylor Kitsch has played many roles in his acting career. He has been a high school football player. Twice in the Navy. An officer with the LAPD. A card-throwing mutant. He's even been a human inhabitant on Mars. Now, he can add two new roles to his resumé: terrorist and cult leader.

Deadline Hollywood reported a couple weeks ago that Taylor Kitsch is joining the cast of American Assassin, based on the Vince Flynn novel about the recruitment and training of fictional counterterrorist operative / assassin Mitch Rapp. Kitsch is slated to play the main antagonist of the film with Dylan O'Brien set to play Rapp and Michael Keaton playing Rapp's instructor, Cold War veteran spy Stan Hurley.



Before he learns on how to become a terrorist, he'll be learning on how to lead a cult. The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Taylor Kitsch will play Branch Davidian leader David Koresh in the limited television series Waco, which is being prepped by Weinstein Television. Kitsch will costar with Michael Shannon, who is playing FBI negotiator Gary Noesnar, and Ludacris, who is set to portray Branch Davidian member Wayne Martin. The series is set to dramatize the events that lead up to the failed FBI siege on the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas back in 1993.



While the novel American Assassin is the eleventh book in the series, it is one of a two-part prequel (the second being Kill Shot) that tells the story of how Mitch Rapp went from college triathlete to the CIA's top terrorist hunter. The novel series was created by author Vince Flynn, who helped pen the script for the Emmy-winning fifth season of 24, as well as being an advisor for the show's seventh season. For the fourteenth novel, The Survivor, author Kyle Mills took over writing duties when Flynn passed away after a long fight with cancer. A fifteenth novel in the series, Order To Kill, is due out this October.


All information in this article is provided by Deadline Hollywood, The Hollywood Reporter and VinceFlynn.com, unless otherwise notated.