Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman) is making a thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy? Where do I sign up to be one of the first to see it? Wait? What? Worldview Entertainment is backing out of financing the movie and 20th Century Fox isn’t interested in paying themselves due to DiCaprio and Hardy’s pay-or-play deals? Um… now what?
Never fear, it looks like Megan Ellison and her production house, Annapurna Pictures, may be coming in to rescue the picture which Inarritu wants to shoot in sequence (adding $7 million to the production budget). Ellison and Annapurna are, of course, responsible for recent films such as Her, The Master, American Hustle and Killing Them Softly making her a bonafide indie film fan favorite and saving this pic could raise her up another notch.
[amz asin=”0786710276″ size=”small”]The film is called The Revenant and DiCaprio would star as Hugh Glass, a 19th century fur trapper who is mauled by a grizzly bear, left for dead and then robbed. When he survives against all odds, he sets out on a treacherous journey to exact revenge on his betrayers in this captivating and inspiring story based on the Michael Punke novel, “The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge.”
Mark L. Smith (Vacancy) wrote the screenplay, with production previously slated to begin in September for a 2015 release through New Regency’s distribution deal with 20th Century Fox. We’ll have to wait and see how this turns out. [THR]
