We first reported on Clint Eastwood taking on the story of Captain Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger last week, an adaptation of Captain Sully’s book accounting for how he emergency landed a passenger plane on the Hudson River after a flock of geese caused an engine accident.
Eastwood was a natural to take on the story, but it didn’t yet have a star attached. And while John Slattery might be a dead ringer for the pilot, and Eastwood himself could’ve done it despite his age, you don’t get a better everyman, hero type than Tom Hanks. According to Deadline, Hanks is currently in negotiations with Warner Bros. He’s really stretching himself here, don’t you think? Eastwood has never worked with Hanks, so the timing could not be better. The film is still without a title.
In another piece of curious potential casting news, a UK newspaper and bookmaker started a rumor that the next James Bond could be Homeland‘s Damian Lewis. It isn’t news to suggest the rumor that Lewis has been offered the part, but it is news to say that Lewis’s odds are 3/1 via the UK bookmaker to get the part, just behind the 5/2 odds for Idris Elba. Rumors for Elba’s name started surfacing several years back by the current Bond, Daniel Craig. Elba now assumes as of April that his chances are all but vanished, saying, “Honestly, it’s a rumor that’s really starting to eat itself. If there was ever any chance of me getting Bond, it’s gone… I blame Daniel.” The bookmaker also had odds on Tom Hardy(4/1), Henry Cavill (5/1) and Michael Fassbender (7/1), all of whom would be crazy casting choices. Craig has hinted he might leave the franchise following this year’s Spectre.
In other casting news, Jack Huston has departed The Crow due to scheduling issues, with the studio seeking Nicholas Hoult or Jack O’Connell as replacements. Star Wars: Rogue One has added Forest Whitaker. Katherine Waterston will play the female lead opposite Eddie Redmayne in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Jason Segel is in negotiations for Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) Collateral Beauty, already starring Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara. And Amy Poehler is in talks to join Will Ferrell’s gambling movie The House.
Finally, like a handful of film critics, Carolina Panthers offensive tackle Michael Oher is not a fan of the Oscar winning movie The Blind Side. The film from 2009 is based on Oher’s life and how his adoptive mother helped get him in the game, but he said the film diminishes his talents and takes away from what he does as an athlete. Oher said to ESPN, “People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie. They don’t really see the skills and the kind of player I am. That’s why I get downgraded so much, because of something off the field.
He continued, “This stuff, calling me a bust, people saying if I can play or not … that has nothing to do with football. It’s something else off the field. That’s why I don’t like that movie…That’s taken away from my football. That’s why people criticize me. That’s why people look at me every single play.”