After making it onto the 2013 Black List, Pan is moving closer and closer to going before cameras.
Last week, Warner Bros. pushed back the Man of Steel sequel, tentatively referred to as Batman vs. Superman, into a May 6th, 2016 slot, and rather than leaving their July 2015 slot empty, they filled it with Joe Wright’s Pan.
Deadline reports that the film has now found its lead, with Garrett Hedlund signing on as Hook, played so well by Dustin Hoffman in Steven Spielberg’s 1991 classic, Hook.
Hedlund’s age alone tells you this is not going to be your typical Peter Pan story.
Scripted by Jason Fuchs (Ice Age: Continental Drift), Pan tells the story of an orphan taken to the magical world of Neverland, where he becomes the saviour of the natives and leads a rebellion against evil pirates.
Hugh Jackman has reportedly been in talks for the role of Blackbeard, but nothing is confirmed on that front yet, with Javier Bardem previously in talks for the same role before ultimately passing.
Perhaps best known for his leading role in TRON: Legacy, Hedlund is coming off the back of a supporting role in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. He’ll be reunited with Oscar Isaac later this year in William Monahan’s Mojave, and also has Andrew Levitas’ Lullaby in the can, starring alongside Amy Adams and Jessica Brown Findlay.
Most recently, he’s been working alongside Jack O’Connell, Jai Courtney, and Domhnall Gleeson in Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken, expected to be an Oscar contender, due out on Christmas Day this year.
Joe Wright will be shooting the film in 3D, and I hope that he’ll be bringing the same kind of intimacy that we’ve come to love in his previous work.
Pan will be released on July 17th, 2015, and if Warner Bros. is positioning it as one of their biggest blockbusters of next year from its previous June slot, you can be sure they’ve got a lot of faith in Wright, Fuchs, and Hedlund to deliver an epic tale.
