Matthew McConaughey confirms he'll star in Christopher Nolan movie 'Interstellar'

Matthew McConaughey has demonstrated a jaw-dropping acting range in last few films, from a hot-dogging D.A in "Bernie" to an amoral hitman in "Killer Joe," a good old boy into masochistic S&M in "The Paperboy" and a wigged-out strip club owner/star in "Magic Mike." He's shown himself capable of challenges no one would have imagined two years ago.

Perhaps it shouldn't surprise, then, that he'll star in the one of the biggest projects Hollywood has to offer, Christopher Nolan's 2014 sci-fi epic "Interstellar." McConaughey said the much-talked-about deal is done in a phone interview this morning from New Orleans, where he is currently filming the upcoming HBO crime series "True Detective" with Woody Harrelson.

Nolan's projects are notoriously secretive, and McConaughey revealed no details other than to say "I'm confirming" that he had accepted the role.

There's no other casting news about the project. The script, by Nolan's brother and regular collaborator Jonathan, is said to involve "time travel and alternate dimensions and sees a group of explorers travel through a wormhole." Sounds like a companion piece to Nolan's mind-bending "Inception," "Memento," and "The Prestige."

McConaughey's shape-shifting post-romantic-comedy career continues with the soon-to-be-released "Mud," where he plays a romantically obsessed drifter, and "The Dallas Buyers Club," due out later this year. The film tells the true story of Ron Woodroof, a homophobic Texas electrician who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and given six months to live before extending his lifespan through alternative treatments. McConaughey literally shape-shifted for that film, shedding 40 pounds to play the emaciated Woodruff.