JGL is ready 'To Walk the Clouds'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a new casting that will take him to… new heights. The HitRecord star will play Philippe Pettit in Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming biopic To Walk the Clouds . The film follows the story of Pettit who was the first person to ever successfully walk a tightrope between the Twin Towers in 1974. To Walk the Clouds is an adaptation of Pettit’s own memoir Man on Wire, which captured the six years of training he endured before making the historic walk.

Gordon-Levitt has been taking the quieter indie route these days, landing in projects like the untitled Xmas Comedy with his 50/50 team and working on his HitRecord on TV series. To Walk the Clouds, which will be shot in 3-D by a director whose films are nothing short of epic, will bring Gordon-Levitt back into the big-budget blockbusters.

And that’s not to say he’s not up for the challenge. In the second act of his career (in his late 20s and early 30s because of that whole child actor thing), Gordon-Levitt has appeared in everything from the action-packed Dark Knight series to thrillers like Inception and sexy comedies like Don Jon. In fewer words, Joseph Gordon-Levitt can essentially do it all. And at least we know he’s not afraid of heights after having scaled all over Gotham City.

Zemeckis, who is co-writing and directing To Walk the Clouds is behind such films as Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away — so we know it will be a huge and soaring story with a strong, intimate character-driven core.

Here’s how we know JGL can totally deliver everything this role will need:

The film takes place in 1974, so there’s probably going to have to be at least a little dancing:

Mastering that whole being French thing:

(Go to 0:34 and die a little bit)

Being on top of the World:

Taking plenty of tumbles during the training sequences:

Having more balance than an elephant on a circus ball:

Portraying Pettit’s skills as a street performer in Paris and New York City:

And lastly, focus, focus, focus:

This guy is ready.