Gyllenhaal Could Head Into The Woods

Update: The news is still of cast members being "near to deals" rather than actually signed on, but latest to circle Into The Woods is Emily Blunt{ =nofollow}. The role she's eyeing in the Disney/Sondheim fairytale musical is the Baker's Wife, who gets cursed by the Wicked Witch (likely to be Mery Streep).

As Blunt arrives, her potential screen husband possibly departs however. Reports that James Corden was on board to play the Baker were apparently premature. In fairness, with the greatest of respect to Corden, he and Blunt don't make an obvious couple. Those negotiations, presumably, are still ongoing...

We can almost hear the overture starting. Yes, with Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep now on board and Jerry Bruckheimer pulling the producer’s puppeteer strings, director Rob Marshall is gathering his likely cast for new movie musical project Into The Woods. The latest potential recruits? Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Pine{ =nofollow}.

We say potential, because the Hollywood Reporter cautions that they’ve yet to start even negotiating deals to join the ensemble, let alone signing anything. But they have both sung for the director and are expected to score offers.

The film will adapt Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Broadway musical and find James Corden as a childless baker, who attempts to lift a family curse by journeying into the woods with his wife to confront the witch (Streep) that put the spell on them. Along the way, they encounter Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jack And The Beanstalk’s Jack, Little Red Riding Hood and other classic characters. Depp is playing a sexy version of the Big Bad Wolf.

It appears Pine and Gyllenhaal are up to play the film’s pompous princes, who score [a show-stopping tune](http://<iframe width="415" height="233" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LFgMowOwek0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>) of their own.

Marshall is currently looking to shoot in the autumn, giving Depp enough time to work on Wally Pfister’s Transcendence and Boston crime drama Black Mass.

Gyllenhaal will next crop up in Prisoners (out October 4) and An Enemy. Pine, of course, is on our screens in Star Trek Into Darkness and has Jack Ryan set to arrive on December 26. He’s also lining up a small role in Joe Carnahan’s **Stretch.