Los Angeles, Dec 10 (IANS): Filmmaker Christopher Nolan is adding more star power to his World War II drama 'Oppenheimer'.

Oscar winner Rami Malek, Oscar nominee Florence Pugh and 'Uncut Gems' director Benny Safdie have joined a star-studded cast that already includes Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt, reports variety.com.

The film and its story about the development of the atomic bomb, is an artistic and financial risk for Nolan and Universal Studios.

It carries a $100 million budget, and adult dramas have not fared too well at the box office of late, even those with major stars such as Will Smith's 'King Richard' or Damon's 'The Last Duel'.

Malek recently starred as the villain in the James Bond sequel 'No Time to Die', Pugh picked up the baton from Scarlett Johansson in Marvel's 'Black Widow', and Safdie had a supporting role in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Licorice Pizza'.

Nolan's film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

Murphy will star as Oppenheimer; with Malek playing a scientist; Pugh appearing as Jean Tatlock, a Communist Party member who has a love affair with Oppenheimer; and Safdie starring as Edward Teller, a physicist involved in the Manhattan Project.