HOLLYWOOD -- Aaron Eckhart hopes going to the centre of the Earth will help launch his career.

In the sci-fi adventure The Core, Eckhart plays a geophysicist conscripted as part of a secret mission to save the Earth.

The planet's inner core has stopped rotating and unless the members of the mission fix it, mankind is doomed.

David Foster, who produced The Core, says Eckhart is "the best young actor in the business today and he's a hunk to boot.

"If anyone is poised to accept the mantle of Harrison Ford it's Aaron. He's been doing quirky roles for most of his career, but he's on the brink of becoming a leading man."

Jon Amiel, who directed The Core, feels Eckhart is "accessibly handsome. He's not a pretty boy and he's masculine without being macho. Best yet, he has humour and that's lacking in so many of the actors of his generation."

Eckhart says he's both humbled and thrilled with the comparisons to Ford.

"I've always loved Harrison's brand of sly humour. I think that is what has made him such a successful actor. If I could emulate that I'd be so happy."

In the early '90s, Eckhart was acting on stage and in independent films.

It was his friendship with writer and director Neil LaBute that gave Eckhart his first break in 1994 when he played the boorish womanizing junior executive in LaBute's In the Company of Men.

In 2000, he played Julia Roberts' motorcycle boyfriend in Erin Brockovich.

"Everyone said the success of that film was going to change my life. I'm here to tell you it didn't. I've been plodding along for seven years."

Eckhart says he hopes The Core is a box-office hit.

"The Core is much more my film than Erin Brockovich ever was. That was Julia's film and she's the one who deserved to benefit from it.

"We sweated blood to make The Core ... It would be a shame if it doesn't connect with audiences."

On a purely personal level Eckhart hopes The Core is a hit, so it will give him "access to better scripts. A little power in Hollywood is very important and that's what box-office gives you."

Eckhart, 35, is currently shooting The Missing with Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett.

"It's a western sent in New Mexico in 1886. The appeal for me next to working with Ron Howard is the fact I get to ride a horse. I've been on horses, but never had to ride-like-the-wind as it says my character does ..."

Eckhart will also star opposite Ben Affleck in John Woo's Paycheck that starts next month.

"These are two great little parts but I keep feeling I wasn't put on this earth to be a supporting actor forever."


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