We mostly think (and admire) him in the warm context of his Before trilogy or, looking further back, Reality Bites, but Ethan Hawke has been going in a seemingly opposite direction these past few years. Yes, you’re probably still debating what the last line of his recent European trip with Julie Delpy truly signified and ignoring that car film from August, but consider this overwhelming selection culled from as recently as 2010 onward: Daybreakers, The Purge, Getaway, Sinister, the upcoming time travel drama Predestination, and even a deleted scene in last year’s Total Recall remake. Not exactly what we think of when his name comes to mind, yet the evidence is as plain as day.
There’s no need for surprise, then, when Variety report that Hawke is angling toward Regression, an “elevated genre project” from writer-director Alejandro Amenábar (The Sea Inside, The Others) and FilmNation. All involved (producers MOD and Himenoptero included) are playing this one coyly, only telling us to expect a title that “plays […] with our deepest primal fears to make us feel once again both profoundly human and extremely vulnerable,” another player adding that it will contain “a truly atmospheric setting, [and] is going to be unforgettable for years to come.”
At least they’re selling the title with some humility. Regression will begin shooting this spring.
Next, THR inform us Channing Tatum has begun circling Bad Romance, a new project from Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies, 50/50, The Wackness). That no details exist (save for the involvement of MGM and the star’s Iron Horse Entertainment possibly producing) should make this prospect a bit more intriguing, given the helmer’s refusal to stick with similar archetypes or plot trappings — but when we know absolutely no more, we’ll have to hold off on comments of any sort.
There’s also news that Jake Gyllenhaal is eyeing toward Southpaw, a long-gestating boxing drama which Antoine Fuqua has been involved with since June of 2011. It’s been a bumpy road since then, but, with The Weinstein Company having taken control, things are back in order — and, now, it’s expected that “Gyllenhaal will play a left-handed prizefighter who wins a title but suffers a tragedy soon after and must put his life back together to earn the respect of his young daughter.”
Riche Productions are also backing the project, with production expected to begin next year. [TheWrap]
Finally, word from Variety has it that Patrick Wilson will step into Timothy Olyphant‘s place on The Man on Carrion Road. With a script from Nils Lyew and directed by Gonzalo López-Gallego (Apollo 18), the project follows “a border town sheriff who must team with the retired lawman he replaced to investigate the source of a botched Mexican cartel deal in order to stop a mysterious cartel butcher and his systematic brutalization of the town’s residents.” Atlas Independent and Relativity International have been tapped to produce, with cameras rolling in March.
What do you make of these announced titles? Do the casting picks seem correct?