Just yesterday, we reported on All Is Lost** director J.C. Chandor signing on to write and potentially direct a biopic of American Football icon Vince Lombardi. We mentioned his next film, A** Most Violent Year**, which was supposed to star Jessica Chastain and Javier Bardem. Get out your erasers, because Bardem is out, but Chandor has Oscar Isaac lined up to replace him{
According to Chandor, Bardem dropped out over disagreements with the direction of the script, and Chastain pushed for Isaac as her co-star instead. "It's really neat because Jessica was pushing Oscar because they were classmates at Juilliard," Chandor tells The Hollywood Reporter. "And he literally is this character."
So who is this character? He’s a Hispanic man who arrives in America with dreams of making it and ends up as a very successful businessman. Will there be a price to pay? Well, the movie is set in 1981, which was statistically one of the most violent years on record across the pond. Sounds like the American dream might have a touch of the Scarface about it here…
Chandor, who is drawing awards buzz with All Is Lost, will start work on the new film in January. Isaac is also the talk of Oscar season thanks to his performance in the Coen brothers’** Inside Llewyn Davi****s**, which is out here on January 24. He’ll follow that with The Two Faces Of January, Alex Garland’s techno-drama Ex Machina and causing trouble for Garrett Hedlund in William Monahan’s Mojave, as well as appearing in In Secret**, which got a trailer today.