'District 9' star Sharlto Copley joins space adventure 'Europa'

Sharlto Copley has signed on to the space adventure film Europa.

The District 9 actor will be joining Anamaria Marinca, Michael Nyqvist and Daniel Vu in the movie, Deadline reports.

Europa follows an international team of astronauts who are sent to Jupiter for research in the first ever manned mission to the planet. Cronicas' Sebastian Cordero is directing from a script by Philip Gelatt.

Copley is also currently attached to District 9 director Neill Blomkamp's Elysium.

Blomkamp's second sci-fi outing has been kept under wraps, but is known to star Jodie Foster as the head of an alien planet.

Foster has said that the film will adopt the same social commentary as Blomkamp's debut feature. Copley claimed in 2010 that he and Blomkamp are both keen to revisit the world of District 9.

The South African actor said: "That story can go in so many different ways. There's a whole universe. I'm sure a lot of writers say that, but we actually have an entire universe.

"There's a million ways you can go. Neill's actually very interested in prequels as well; he's said that a few times.

"We wouldn't do the traditional Hollywood version of the sequel which would just be 100 aliens fighting humans."

Watch the trailer for District 9 below: