Action film Motor City has been in development for some time now, with Chris Evans (Captain America) first offered the lead last summer and Albert Hughes (From Hell) signing on to direct.
Dominic Cooper then came on board to replace lead, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. And with the role vacated, Variety report that Warner Bros. and Dark Castle have worked quickly to fill the part, and are now in negotiations with the Oscar-nominated Jake Gyllenhaal to take the lead in Cooper’s place.
“Story follows a felon who, after being released from prison, begins tracking down the men who framed him.”
Both Amber Heard and Gary Oldman are already attached to star, making the prospect of Gyllenhaal taking the lead with Oldman as the antagonist even more exciting.
When Hughes came on board as director last summer, the project was interestingly described as an almost silent film in terms of dialogue – not something easy to accomplish, especially with an action film – but reference to that seems to have dropped off the radar, so whether Chad St. John (who makes his debut with this script) has been re-writing remains to be seen.
Gyllenhaal is of course an extremely talented actor, last seen leading Duncan Jones’ brilliant Source Code (if you haven’t seen it yet, put it on your Must Watch list right now!), and will be returning to the big screen later this year in David Ayer’s End of Watch, which the US will be getting on 28th September, and hopefully we’ll be getting it around then too.
According to Deadline, Motor City is set to go before cameras late this spring in Berlin, so hopefully Gyllenhaal can lock down the part with Warner Bros. and Dark Castle soon. Judging by the talent involved, this is definitely one to keep an eye on. More news as we get it.
