Director Kathryn Bigelow had wanted Johnny for one of five male lead roles in Triple Frontier which she had planned to start filming in Spring 2011. Tom Hanks was in talks for one of the other leads. It seemed that Johnny was interested in the film project, but was commited to Dark Shadows starting in Spring 2011.
Now it looks like Bigelow has pushed the timetable for Triple Frontier back to Fall 2011, and plans to do an indy film prior to Triple Frontier. This may open the way for Johnny to think about possibly doing this movie, but nothing definite now.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118028454?refCatId=13
Bigelow, Boal shopping international thriller
Potential production unlikely to affect sked of 'Triple Frontier.'
By JUSTIN KROLL
Variety.com
Posted: Sun., Dec. 5, 2010, 2:00pm PT
Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal are shopping an international thriller that would likely film before the fall 2011 start of Paramount's "Triple Frontier." Sources said the new indie project is timely, tapping into recent news events.
No script is ready yet but the plan would be that Boal would pen the script and Bigelow would direct.
No one would give details, other than to say it concerns black ops and is based on a true story that has appeared in printed form.
The two, who won Oscars for "Hurt Locker," are hunting for financing for the low-budget thriller. The duo are out of the country and did not return phone calls.
It's a similar approach to "The Hurt Locker," which cost just over $10 million, so Bigelow and Boal are accustomed to pulling together a film quickly on this budget level.
"Triple" is still on track, but since that project has a lot of moving parts, the duo decided to do a fast indie in the interim.
In recent months, "Triple Frontier" has caught the eye of such stars as Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Will Smith, who have all shown interest at various times.
Insiders have said that Hanks is committed to the film and Depp would also like to do it, but has committed to doing Tim Burton's "Dark Shadows" as his next film.
Altogether "Triple Frontier" has four major roles, so doing a smaller film first will allow them to find the right fit for each role and allow time for negotiations and scheduling.
The new project is not likely to affect "Triple."
Situation is similar to when Clint Eastwood had downtime when "Flags of Our Fathers" was in post-production, so he used the time to film the fast and modestly budgeted "Letters From Iwo Jima." Barry Levinson did something similar while waiting for the bigger-budget "Sphere" to begin, shooting the comedy "Wag the Dog" right before "Sphere."
Bigelow is repped by CAA, Boal is repped by CAA and Management 360.
