Update: Whoops! Looks like the musical casting couches tune will have to be played once more as Deadline now brings word that Gyllenhaal will have to pass on the film due to scheduling issues. Next!
Do you hear that oddly off-key plinky plonky music? The stuff that sounds like it was dredged from a thousand childhood nightmares? Don’t worry too much: it’s just the tune that plays whenever Hollywood indulges in musical casting couches. We said last month that news of Dominic Cooper joining the castof Roger Donaldson’s Cities could well take him out of the cast for Albert Hughes’ action thriller Motor City. So it has come to pass, but at least Hughes has Jake Gyllenhaal in negotiations to take his place.
Assuming he gets the 17 boxes of rainbow-coloured wine gums he specifies in his contract, Gyllenhaal will play a small-time hood who gets framed and thrown in the slammer. Upon his release he settles into a quiet life running a facility that cares for baby marmosets.
...Okay, that would be a terrible plot for an action thriller. No, he actually swears revenge on those who put him away and sets out to find them.
Amber Heard will be playing the female lead, with Gary Oldman reuniting with his Book Of Eli director to play another big bad. But the most intriguing element? Chad St. John’s original, Black List-worthy script featured exactly one line of dialogue for our hero. We’re left wondering if that has survived through to the shooting draft.
Gyllenhaal was last on screen in **Source Code **and David Ayer’s cop drama End Of Watch set to arrive later this year.