Director Derek Cianfrance continues to stock his next directorial effort with top notch talent. Cianfrance, the director of the indie fave Blue Valentine, had already signed up his Blue Valentine leading man Ryan Gosling as well as Hangover stud Bradley Cooper for the crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines. Today we get news that he has apparently landed a pair of ace leading ladies.
Cinema Blend reports that Ghost Rider hottie Eva Mendes and Greenberg cutie Greta Gerwig are set to join the cast of The Place Beyond the Pines as the love interests of Gosling and Cooper. Mendes will play baby mama to Gosling’s motorcycle stuntman turned criminal while Gerwig is set to play the wife of Cooper’s cop turned politician. The film tells the story of “a motorcycle stunt rider (Gosling) who finds out he has a baby and works to become a father.”
Eva Mendes was last seen in the post-credits sequence of Fast Five where she reprised her role from 2 Fast 2 Furious in a brief exchange with Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson. Mendes is currently wrapping up work on the dramedy See if I Care with Matthew Modine and Patricia Arquette. Mendes has also been rumored for a role in the upcoming Total Recall remake though nothing is official.
Greta Gerwig has already had a very busy 2011 having starred in three films including the romantic comedies No Strings Attached, Arthur and the indie drama The Dish and the Spoon which received solid reviews at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Currently, Gerwig is finishing work on director Whit Stillman‘s return to the big screen, Damsels in Distress, co-starring Adam Brody, while prepping Lola Versus with 30 Rock actor Cheyenne Jackson.
No word yet on when production will commence on The Place Beyond the Pines though IMDb lists the film as a 2013 release.