With the one-two-three punch of financial drama Margin Call, one-man-show All Is Lost and period pic A Most Violent Year, JC Chandor has cemented himself as one of the most exacting and enthralling helmers out there. Now, Deadline is reporting that he may have found his next project in hot-button crime drama Triple Frontier.
Paramount Pictures is in early talks with the director to take on the film, the plot for which is being kept tightly under wraps. Once known as Sleeping Dogs, it takes place in the organized crime haven that exists at the intersection of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Five main roles are rumored, with Will Smith and Tom Hanks believed to be circling.
Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, the director-writer team behind The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, were previously involved with the project. They ended up moving along to a Bowe Bergdhal biopic though, which will tell the story of a U.S. soldier who was captured by enemy forces in Afghanistan after slipping away from his base, and held for five years by the Taliban until a hostage swap took place. If he comes aboard, Chandor will still work from Boal’s script.
If Chandor ends up taking the reins on the film, it will likely be his biggest picture to date. That was to be expected for the director, as he’s been looking for a big project to tackle after exiting oil rig disaster pic Deepwater Horizon over creative differences (that Battleship helmer Peter Berg eventually occupied the director’s chair should give you an idea of exactly what kinds of creative differences we’re talking about here).
We also recently heard that Chandor was producing with an eye to direct The Liar’s Ball, a pic that will tell the story of the famed G.M. Building in New York. It will specifically detail the tooth-and-nail battles that took place between industry titans over the years to gain possession of the coveted piece of real estate. Now that he’s in talks for Triple Frontier, we can probably assume that someone else will take the reins on that intriguing pic.
