For Rosamund Pike, it seems that not bagging the Best Actress Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards hasn’t hurt her future prospects. Variety reports that she’s now entered talks to star opposite Christian Bale in The Deep Blue Good-By. The adaptation is currently set up over at Fox with Chernin Entertainment and Appian Way set to produce.
The Wolverine director James Mangold will be at the helm, for what’s being touted as the start of a potential new franchise. The Deep Blue Good-By will adapt the first of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee series of novels. Each successive book traces the story of McGee (represented onscreen by Bale), a self-described “salvage consultant” who recovers others’ property for a fee and along the way gets into trouble fighting bad guys and wooing women.
For an in-depth look at the novel, check out the synopsis below (via Amazon):
Travis McGee is a self-described beach bum who won his houseboat in a card game. Hes also a knight-errant whos wary of credit cards, retirement benefits, political parties, mortgages, and television. He only works when his cash runs out, and his rule is simple: Hell help you find whatever was taken from you, as long as he can keep half.
McGee isnt particularly strapped for cash, but how can anyone say no to Cathy, a sweet backwoods girl whos been tortured repeatedly by her manipulative ex-boyfriend Junior Allen? What Travis isnt anticipating is just how many women Junior has torn apart and left in his wake. Enter Juniors latest victim, Lois Atkinson.
Frail and broken, Lois can barely get out of bed when Travis finds her, let alone keep herself alive. But Travis turns into Mother McGee, giving Lois new life as he looks for the ruthless man who steals womens spirits and livelihoods. But he cant guess how violent his quest is soon to become. Hell learn the hard way that there must be casualties in this game of cat and mouse.
Variety’s initial report doesn’t specify which role Pike may be tackling, but we’d hazard a guess and say it’s either Cathy or Lois. Both share an eerie similarity to her Amazing Amy persona from Gone Girl so, who knows, there might be a third female hidden within the novel that she’s eyeing up.
It’s expected that Pike will commence filming on the project shortly before heading off to brave the chilly locales of survival drama, The Mountains Between Us, in which she co-stars with Charlie Hunnam.
Early drafts of The Deep Blue Good-By were penned by prolific author Dennis Lehane. Known for his best-selling novels Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone and Shutter Island, his credentials suggest his flair for rustling up compelling tales will no doubt be beneficial in this latest adaptation. Currently, the film is being redrafted by The Wolverine‘s Scott Frank.
