Just a moment ago Variety reported that Sony was in early talks with Jennifer Lawrence to play the female lead in Passengers. Only for The Wrap to chime-in with their own scoop that Chris Pratt is also in the mix for the male lead.
Set in the future aboard a spacecraft, “Passengers” follows a man who awakens early from a cryogenic slumber and to spare himself from being lonely, decides to wake up a female passenger, which is the role Lawrence is circling.
Two high-profiled actors that were recently titled the biggest box office earners of 2014 in one film screams heat, something to consider during it's early casting days.
Pratt has been linked to a bunch of different films including a possible reboot of Indiana Jones. Lawrence was also mentioned as a desired addition for Sony's Ghostbusters reboot, so they've previously talked to the actress about projects.
Keanu Reeves was previously mentioned for the male lead a while back but Pratt seems a bit more age appropriate for lead like Lawrence.
Variety is reporting that Jennifer Lawrence is early talks with Sony to star as the lead in their sci-fi romance drama Passengers. The film is a from a spec-script penned by Prometheus and Doctor Strange screenwriter Jon Spahits with Oscar nominated director Morten Tyldum (Intimidation Game, Headhunters) attached.
Set on a spacecraft in the future with thousands of passengers making an interstellar voyage to a distant new planet. One passenger awakens from cryogenic sleep 90 years before anyone else and decides to wake up a female passenger, sparking the beginning of a love story.
This would be a huge deal for both Sony and Lawrence, as it's possible the film could end-up being the next Gravity if handled properly. Jennifer is known for a balance of high-profile and indie project, it's possible Passengers could become a nice mix of both.
Actresses Reese Witherspoon and Rachel McAdams were previously linked for the project before Sony got involved.
Variety reports that Sony is currently in negotiations with Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum to helm their sci-fi flick Passengers. He's best known for the Oscar nominated film which earned him a Best Director nomination, studios will likely be knocking his door with many projects.
Another one of his films is a slick thriller Headhunters which is totally worth watching if you get the chance.
Passengers is based on a spec-script from screenwriter Jon Spahits that Sony bought on the spot.
Set on a spacecraft in the future with thousands of passengers making an interstellar voyage to a distant new planet. One passenger awakens from cryogenic sleep 90 years before anyone else and decides to wake up a female passenger, sparking the beginning of a love story.
Jon is best known for having his original Prometheus script rewritten by Damon Lindelof, I urge you to seek out his original draft and compare it to the film it's actually pretty damn good.
This new project is seeming taking cues from David's creepy spying on Shaw during her hyper-sleep.
He's also landed high profile screenwriting gigs with Marvel Studios penning Scott Derrickson's Doctor Strange along with writing a draft of Universal's Mummy reboot.
Casting hasn't begun but a couple of names have been attached to the project in the past and they include Reese Witherspoon (Wild, Inherent Vice), Keanu Reeves (John Wick, Speed, Point Break) and Rachel McAdams (True Detective, Notebook). The actors have since moved on from the film but could be lured to return with Morten Tyldum's involvement.
The genre is hot again thanks to films like Gravity and Guardians of The Galaxy making huge box office.
I'm sure he'll be getting a bunch of offers but Sony has managed to allow some creative freedom to their sci-fi directors in the past with Neill Blomkamp being able to make wildly different movies like Elysium and the upcoming Chappie.
Other big sci-fi projects with sprawling casts coming soon include Ridley Scott's The Martian and Ben Wheatley's High-Rise.
Now that we've seen Paramount come to their senses and Roberto Orci step-down as director of Star Trek 3, more potential replacements have been revealed. Deadline is reporting that directors like Rupert Wyatt (The Gambler, Rise of The Planet of The Apes), Morten Tyldum (Intimidation Game, Headhunters), Daniel Espinosa (Safe House, Snabba Cash, Child 44), Justin Lin (Fast And Furious 3-6) and Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code, Warcraft) are new names on a studio short-list. Wyatt reportedly being the top choice for the gig.
Previously mentioned candidate Edgar Wright isn't named in this grouping.
While my first pick here would be sci-fi savy Duncan Jones. I can understand why the studio would want Rupert Wyatt to direct. Considering, he's already helped Fox reboot their Planet of The Apes franchise. It's possible that he could help push the Trek franchise past a trilogy.
This isn't the first time his name has been in the mix for the third installment. Originally, he had been in the rumormill as a possible candidate. J.J. Abrams spoke to HitFix in 2013, about the potential of hiring Rupert to replace him as director. It also doesn't hurt he just worked with Paramount for his remake of The Gambler.
"I know Rupert and he's incredibly talented and we'd be lucky to have someone as talented as Rupert. But there are things we're focusing on right now before the director, which is just sort of the fundamentals of where the story is gonna go."
Justin Lin would be interesting as well, only problem he's played this game before. Lin attaching himself to projects like Highlander, Terminator 5 and others just to jump-ship. He's currently lined-up to helm the Bourne Legacy sequel with Jeremy Renner, but it's been delayed due to Matt Damon's return to the franchise. That said, he's helped build-up the Fast And Furious franchise to new levels of fandom and is said to be returning for it's finale.
HeatVision reports that Swedish director Morten Tyldum (Headhunters) has lined up his first Hollywood film titled The Disciple Program. Universal won a bidding war for the spec-script from newcomer Tyler Marceca and has Mark Wahlberg attached to star. Wahlberg had been trying to put together an American remake of Morten's Headhunters, so his involvement looks good. It centers on a man who begins an investigation into his wife’s mysterious death, only to find that the mystery goes much deeper than he imagined.
Norwegian director Morten Tyldum's breakout film Headhunters is opening a lot of doors for the filmmaker. Deadline reports Morten will cut his teeth on his first English film which will be a science fiction thriller titled What Happened To Monday?The story follows a group of identical septuplets (seven) who are
trying to avoid governmental execution due to a one-child-per-family
rule set in place as the result of overpopulation. To make their
situation even more of a struggle, one of them goes missing and the
other six set out to try to find them.
His recent film Headhunters is based on the novel by Jo Nesbo which features an art thief, corporate espionage and a murderous mercenary played by Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister
from Game of Thrones). I recently saw the stunning thriller which gets an North American debut this spring. Another one of Nesbo's crime novels The Snowman is getting a film adaptation by Martin Scorsese.
