Joel Edgerton has been circling the project for some time, as he was considering taking on the lead for the 300 prequel, 300: Battle of Artemisia. Having now passed on that, Variety are reporting that Edgerton has officially boarded Bigelow’s project, joining his upcoming The Great Gatsby co-star, Jason Clarke. Deadline are also reporting that Jessica Chastain, Mark Strong, and Édgar Ramirez are also in talks to star, which sounds like a very promising line-up.
The project has been in development since 2008, so is not necessarily the kind of ‘jumping-on-the-current-affairs-political-bandwagon’ that we’ve sometimes seen in the past. The project is also under scrutiny, however,
“amid allegations that the Obama administration has given preferential treatment to some Oscar-winning filmmakers.
The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security announced Thursday that the Dept. of Defense and the CIA were investigating whether classified information about the killing of bin Laden was released to Bigelow and Boal. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) released a letter from the Office of the Inspector General at Defense saying they are conducting an investigation. Also released was a letter from the office of the CIA’s inspector general saying that it is developing “a written policy to create a single point of reference that will govern future interactions with the entertainment industry.””
Sony first announced that it was intending to release the film in October, which would see it come just weeks before the American elections in November, leading to some controversy, and the release date has since been pushed back to 19th December in the States.
Production is expected to begin next month, so hopefully we’ll be hearing more casting updates on the project soon, including that of a female reporter embedded within the Navy SEAL 6 team.
The script comes from the Oscar-winning Mark Boal, who wrote and produced The Hurt Locker with Bigelow, which took quite a few people by surprise when it took the Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Original Screenplay Oscars two years ago in competition with James Cameron’s Avatar.
Edgerton has been a rising star in the past few years, showing off his brilliance last year opposite Tom Hardy in Warrior, which is one of the many contenders in the current awards season. He’ll also be starring in The Great Gatsby at the end of the year for Baz Luhrmann, which is set to be released on 25th December in the States, meaning he’ll be starring in at least two Oscar hopefuls by this time next year. It should be another great year for the actor.
