Despite having Oscar-winning cachet behind him, Jonathan Demme still struggles, like everyone in Hollywood, to get projects off the ground. A case in point is indie drama Old Fires, which was announced in 2012, and scheduled to shoot this year before financing issues shut down development. It appears to be back on, because Richard Gere is attached to star.
Tadpole’s Heather McGowan wrote the script, which finds a famous, respected architect falling into a coma after an accident. When he emerges, he needs physical and mental rehabilitation, and gets help from a snarky female physical therapist. Slowly but surely, she nurses him back to health as he rebuilds his damaged relationship with his kids and wins his wife back.
When he first became attached late last year, Demme rounded up Bryan Cranston, Jason Segel and Jennifer Ehle to star, but there’s no mention in The Wrap’s report whether they’ll all still be on board whenever Demme finally puts the project before cameras. We’d imagine Gere is taking over the role Cranston would’ve played.
Gere, who was last seen in Arbitrage and (though he may wish to forget it) Movie 43, is working with Dakota Fanning and Theo James on Franny and has recently been linked with the sequel to **The Best Exotic Marigold Hote****l.