Ethan Hawke to join Julia Roberts in Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind

Ethan Hawke is set to star alongside Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali in the upcoming Netflix thriller 'Leave the World Behind'.

The movie is based on the Rumaan Alam novel of the same name and is to be directed by Sam Esmail.

According to Deadline, the 51-year-old actor is set to portray Julia's husband.

'Industry' actress Myha’la Herrold, 25, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, 11, and Charlie Evans have also joined the cast.

The latter two will play Ethan and Julia's on-screen children, while Myha'la will take on the role of Mahershala's offspring.

'Leave the World Behind' tells the story of two families who are forced together on a long weekend, which goes badly wrong.

Julia, 54, has worked with Esmail, 44, before on the Amazon drama series 'Homecoming'.

Denzel Washington, 67, was initially set to take on Mahershala's role in the flick, which would have seen him reunite with his 'The Pelican Brief' co-star, Julia.

Meanwhile, Ethan is also set to star in Robert Eggers' historical thriller 'The Northman' and recently explained that it was the largest scale movie he had worked on for a long time.

He said: "I did the Robert Eggers film this year, which was the first film in a while that I've done that was really big. Robert really strives for a level of excellence that's really exciting.

"It was one of the rare times when you're making an independent movie that has a real budget around it, so he was able to work at a pace that was more like it was when I started."

Ethan suggested that the motion picture will "feel a lot bigger" than Robert's previous film 'The Lighthouse', which featured Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, and hailed the director for "dancing on the edge" with his work.

Asked about the scale of the respective films, he said: "No, no. It'll feel a lot bigger than that, but it's just as adventuresome. I mean, who knows?

"What's fun about Robert is he goes and dances out on the edge. I have no idea if it'll work, but it was certainly thrilling to be a part of."