There was a nine year gap between Lynne Ramsay’s last two features, but with the moderate success of We Need to Talk About Kevin, the Scottish filmmaker has rightly earned a place among the conscious of Hollywood. So much so in fact that she picked up the black list script Jane Got a Gun as her next project and landed Natalie Portman as her lead actress.
Following the announcement that was made at Cannes, Jane Got a Gun has now found $20 million of funding with a newly established independent company. Deadline reports that Scott Pictures International, an affiliate of Stone Village Productions, has made a deal to produce the film alongside Portman’s company. With the funding all nicely in place, the film will start shooting at the beginning of next year and we can expect more casting announcements soon.
On the casting front, according to Vulture, Michael Fassbender is currently circling the male lead in the film. He would play the role of Natalie Portman’s husband, an outlaw who returns to his home half dead with confederate soldiers hot on his trail. His involvement has apparently not even passed the “in talks” stage though as there is presumably a lot scheduling arrangements that need to be made in order to fit Fassbender in.
He is one of the most sought after actors in film at the moment, he has proven himself a real talent and one of the finest actors of his generation. He has continually attached himself to fascinating and difficult projects with great filmmakers and is stacking up quite a resumé.
Whether he will appear in Lynne Ramsay’s film is up in the air. He is attached to numerous projects at the moment which may prevent this from coming to pass. He has the still shooting Ridley Scott/Cormac McCarthy thriller The Counselor, X-Men: Days of Future Past and a big screen adaptation of Assassin’s Creed.
However, due to this being an independent production and in the hands of Lynne Ramsay (who shot Kevin in just 40 days), there could be a small window of opportunity for the actor to appear in Jane Got a Gun.
I sincerely hope he joins, the teaming of Lynne Ramsay, Michael Fassbender, Natalie Portman working in the Western genre is a very tantalising prospect.
As always, we’ll keep you posted when we hear more.
