After stalking through the desolate wastes of development hell for ages, dark revenge drama The Revenan****t got its claws into another director in August, with Alejandro González Iñárritu attached to make the film.Now he has funding in place from New Regency and is on the hunt for a cast. And the first names on his wish list? Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn.
According to Deadline, both actors have met with Iñárritu about the film, but no deals are in place just yet.
The Revenant, which Mark L Smith adapted from Michael Punke’s novel, follows an ill-fated fur trapping expedition to chilly 1820s South Dakota. Hunter Hugh Glass (DiCaprio, if he signs on) is mauled by a bear, and his companions leave him for dead.
To add insult to injury, two men are assigned to bury what everyone assumes is his dead body. But the greedy pair (Penn would play one of them) decides to rob him and leave him helpless instead. Glass recovers, and swears bloody revenge…
Both actors are busy men, so if they do jump aboard, Iñárritu will likely have to wait nearly a year to get started on the film.
DiCaprio will next be seen on our screens as J. Edgar Hoover in, er, J. Edgar before cropping up in The Great Gatsby. He’s about to start work on Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Penn, meanwhile, is busy shooting The Gangster Squad (probably literally, since he plays the villain…)