With the success of Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, it’s not shocking that Rupert Wyatt would start getting more offers for directing jobs. But while 20th Century Fox is looking to gear up a sequel to the simian sensation – and has Wyatt’s services on standby thanks to a clause in his contract that he gets first crack at any follow-up – he’s also being approached by other studios. Warner Bros. in particular is talking to him about making Londongrad.
The film, written by T****he Last Castle’s David Scarpa (who has also been doing work on the Daredevil reboot), dramatises the events around the death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium-210 in 2006.
It’s a compelling true-life tale, albeit with a tragic end, but loaded with political material given Litvinenko’s claims that then-president Vladimir Putin was behind his assassination. Though that of course, was never proved.
And though this sounds like prime material for Christian Bale to start swallowing doses of the stuff to prepare for the role, Warners actually wants current man of the moment Michael Fassbender to star. We’ll see whether that works out, since there have been rumours of film versions of this story ever since, well, 2006, which have largely fizzled out thus far.