When we first heard about based-on-truth pic **Lion, it appeared set to boast both an Australia reunion (Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman starring together) and one for Chappie (Jackman and Dev Patel). Both appear dashed on the current update that finds Rooney Mara signing up, as Kidman and Patel are instead joined by David Wenham and Divian Ladwa{
Lion, which has Garth Davies directing, boasts a script by Luke Davies adapting Saroo Brierley’s book A Long Way Home. It follows Brierley’s experience as a five-year-old boarding the wrong train in his native India and ending up thousands of miles away from home and living rough on the streets in Kolkata. He was adopted by an Australian couple and flown to their home. Twenty-five years later he used Google Earth to track down his old hometown and reunite with his family.
Davies and his crew have wrapped the first portion of the shoot in India and are now headed to Australia to complete work, with most of the cast reporting for duty there. The Weinstein Company already has the rights to distribute the movie, having picked up rights at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Mara will next be seen in Pan, which arrives here on July 17. She’s also worked on Weightless, The Secret Scripture and Todd Haynes’ latest, Carol.