Update: Variety now adds that Casey Affleck is the frontrunner for the role of the brother and Viggo Mortensen is no longer a likely candidate for the villain.
After the success of Avatar and Star Trek, Zoe Saldana is getting her top choices when it comes to teaming up with the biggest stars. She’ll be seen with Bradley Cooper later this year in The Words and now she is in talks to join Christian Bale, star of quite possibly the most massive film of the year, The Dark Knight Rises. [Variety]
The film is Out of the Furnace, a drama which marks Scott Cooper‘s writing and directing follow-up to Crazy Heart. Described as a “a gritty throwback to 1970s movies,” the script from Brad Ingelsby‘s “follows an ex-con bent on avenging the death of his younger brother as soon as he’s released from prison.” Robert Duvall is nearly locked to play Bale’s uncle, while Viggo Mortensen is the strongest choice for the villain as Casey Affleck, Garrett Hedlund, Taylor Kitsch, and Channing Tatum are all contending for the brother role.
Saldana, if signed, will play a waitress and the ex-wife of Bale, but now married to the town sheriff. Before working on sequels to her big blockbusters from James Cameron and J.J. Abrams, Saldana has had a bit of a rough patch with Colombiana, Takers and Death at a Funeral. If she commits to this role, it’ll be great to see her team with such strong talent. Check out a longer synopsis of Furnace below.
“A dark drama set in 1986 Indiana. The protagonist is Slim, a man released after serving years in prison for murder who wants only to follow through on his promise to marry his long-suffering girlfriend. But when he discovers his brother has been murdered after getting involved in a gambling racket, his goals change and he avenges the murder.”
The Words will hit theaters later this year while Saldana is currently filming Star Trek 2 for a 2013 release.