Patton Oswalt Joins James Ponsoldt's 'The Circle'

James Ponsoldt's circle just keeps getting wider. Patton Oswalt is the latest to join his adaptation of Dave Eggers' bestselling book, following Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, John Boyega, and Karen Gillan. Get more details on the Patton Oswalt The Circle casting after the jump. Deadline broke the Patton Oswalt The Circle casting news. The story revolves around a recent college grad named Mae (Watson) who lands a job at a cutting-edge company called The Circle. You can think of it as a sort of Apple-meets-Google Internet monopoly that links users' emails, social media, banking, and purchasing into a single online identity.

Oswalt will play Tom Stenton, described as a "Italian suit-wearing, tough-dealing throwback to a 1980s Wall Street trader who commands respect." Hanks stars as Kalden, a charismatic and mysterious older man, and Boyega is Ty, a boy-wonder visionary. Gillan signed on last week to play Mae's friend Annie, one of the key employees at the company.

That's quite a cast, but Ponsoldt has already established himself as a director who can pull out fantastic performances from his actors. The Spectacular Now remains some of Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley's best work, and Jason Segel has attracted some Oscar buzz for his turn as David Foster Wallace in The End of the Tour.

Oswalt has been busy lately, mostly with TV work. Just in the past year he's popped up on Veep, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Justified, among many other shows. The Circle shoots this fall in California.

Here's a synopsis of The Circle the book:

When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users' personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.

As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company's modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can't believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman's ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.