Though the big headline surrounding Matt Damon this week was his involvement in Bourne 5, the actor has another very exciting project in the works as well. Deadline is telling us today that Damon is eyeing the lead role in The Great Wall, a Legendary Pictures project that currently has Zhang Yimou in the director’s chair.
Scripted by Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro, the China-set epic has been in development for a few years now and originally had Ed Zwick directing with Benjamin Walker and Henry Cavill set to star. Obviously, that fell through and now Legendary is hoping to push this one into production with Damon and Yimou leading the way.
Plot details are scarce, but the last we heard was that The Great Wall will focus on a group of British warriors, who “happen upon the hurried construction of the massive wall. As night falls, the warriors realize that the haste in building the wall isn’t just to keep out the Mongols — there is something inhuman and more dangerous.” Sounds pretty exciting, right?
With Heroes, House of the Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower under his belt, Yimou is no stranger to China-set epics, so the film is definitely in capable hands. And there’s no need to worry about Damon, either. The last time an A-list American actor led one of Yimou’s movies we got The Flowers of War with Christian Bale, which I absolutely loved.
So, all signs definitely point to promising for The Great Wall, and we’re definitely looking forward to hearing more on this one. When we do, we’ll be sure to let you know.
