Laurence Fishburne signed up for new sci-fi movie 'Slingshot' because he was "surprised" by the movie's "twist".

'The Matrix' star plays an astronaut on a mission to Saturn's moon Titan opposite Casey Affleck in the film from director Mikael Hafstrom and he's revealed he agreed to the project after being blown away by the script.

He told The Hollywood Reporter: "With 'Slingshot', I was just really intrigued by the story and very surprised at the twist and the way that everything resolves itself - or doesn’t resolve itself, depending upon your point of view.

"It was written in such a way that I couldn’t figure out where it was going, and that is very exciting for me."

The actor revealed he was also keen to work with Affleck after being a fan of his movies for a long time. He added: "Big fan of Casey’s work and always wanted to work with him.

"I kind of describe [Affleck] as the [jazz trumpeter] Chet Baker of acting. He’s really cool. He’s got this great sense of lyricism, sense of humour.

"He’s got a great sense of romance. He’s got this beautiful melancholy, this genuine intelligence and a great vulnerability and sensitivity that I just really, really admire."

The film revolves around a team sent on a long voyage to Titan to find a new renewable source of energy to help save Earth but the drugs used to put the crew to sleep start to have a negative impact on some of the astronauts.

Fishburne added to Variety: "As I was reading it, I couldn’t tell how the story was going to end. I get jazzed about the way the movie ends. It doesn’t spoon-feed anything to you. It really requires that you participate in it."

He went on to explain his love of sci-fi movies, saying: "I am a product of my time. I was born in 1961 so where do you think I fell in love with sci-fi?

"I fell in love with sci-fi on the television. There was a little show called 'Star Trek', and it was the first television show, in America, that had a diverse, and multiracial crew on it, so I could turn on 'Star Trek' and see people that looked like me in space in the future."