1.) The saga of Jane Got a Gun continues today following Jude Law‘s departure from the picture after director Lynne Ramsay inexplicably (and she’s not talking) departed the picture only to be replaced by Gavin O’Connor. Now Law must be replaced and word has it Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridges are the candidates. Personally I’m not sure how the first two compare to the third, but as the villain of the piece I guess age must not matter. [LA Times]
2.) Brett Ratner‘s Hercules starring Dwayne Johnson in the title role has added a few more cast members with Ian McShane (Jack the Giant Slayer), Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), Rufus Sewell (Dark City), John Hurt (V for Vendetta) and newcomer Rebecca Ferguson to the picture. Filming begins in May from a script by Ryan Condal is based on the graphic novel Hercules: The Thracian Wars. The film is targeting a July 24, 2015 release date. [Deadline]
3.) Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy are enjoying a Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Dark Knight Rises and Lawless reunion as Oldman has joined the cast of Child 44 alongside Hardy and Joel Kinnaman and Noomi Rapace for Safe House helmer Daniel Espinosa. The film is an adaptation of the Tom Rob Smith novel in which Hardy plays a disgraced intelligence officer investigating a series of child murders in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Rapace plays Hardy’s wife, Kinnaman is the film’s nemesis while Oldman’s character is a member of the military police who suspected in the case.
4.) Antoine Fuqua (Olympus Has Fallen) is the latest director attached to The Equalizer and should things work out, it will reteam the director with his Oscar-winning Training Day star Denzel Washington. The film is loosely based on the late-’80s TV series centered on a private detective available for hire if you have a problem that you don’t know how to solve. His no-nonsense attitude, compassion, and experience with dealing with a wide variety of situations makes him a powerful and useful detective. The story will be adjusted for Denzel Washington to play a solitary, monastic figure who hates injustice and devotes himself to helping people who are being victimized. [Deadline]
5.) Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) is reportedly preparing a remake of Alfred Hitchcock‘s Rebecca for Dreamworks Pictures. Eastern Promises scripter Steven Knight wrote the current draft of the screenplay based on the 1941 Best Picture winner starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, centering on a brooding Englishman who is haunted by memories of his first wife who died in a drowning accident. The film itself was based on the novel by Daphne Du Maurier. There is no word on whether Knight went straight back to the source or used Hitch’s film as a guide, my assumption would be the former. [Deadline]
