Wednesday, April 16, 2014

'Babel' Director Teaming with Leonardo DiCaprio for 'The Revenant'

 The Revenant / Leonardo DiCaprio
Though Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to a hefty handful of projects, we've been waiting to hear what would be his immediate follow-up to his Oscar nominated performance in The Wolf of Wall Street, and now we have our answer. Deadline has word that Babel director Alejando Gonzalez Inarritu (who won't be taking Birdman with Michael Keaton to Cannes) has landed DiCaprio to star in The Revenant, a new gritty, period thriller set in the 19th century at New Regency that is moving quickly towards production with 20th Century Fox hoping to release the film sometime in the fall of 2015. So what's the story about? Read on!
The film is actually based on the novel The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge by Michael Punke, and will follow DiCaprio as Hugh Glass, a fur trapper who joins the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in a speculative venture that takes him and ten other men up the Missouri River into perilous, unexplored territory. While in the wilderness, a grizzly bear mauls Glass fatally, taking him to within inches of his life. But his fellow trappers leave him behind, taking his gun and knife and leaving him for dead. After a miraculous survival over a two thousand mile trek, he returns to take revenge on those who left him to die alone in the woods.
It certainly sounds like something very different for DiCaprio, and could end up being another Oscar contender for New Regency, fresh off their Best Picture win for 12 Years a Slave. The company just also set up The Operators with Brad Pitt and his Plan B production banner that will see the actor behind the scenes as a commanding officer in the Afghanistan War. They also have Inarritu'sBirdman set to hit theaters in October, David Fincher's Gone Girl in the same month (watch the teaser trailer) and Cameron Crowe's project with Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper. Plus, they've got action in the works with the video game adaptations of Splinter Cell with Tom Hardy andAssassin's Creed with Michael Fassbender. Stay tuned.

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