After breaking out in The Social Network, Armie Hammer has opted for mostly high-profile films. We saw him in Clint Eastwood‘s J. Edgar this fall, and he will appear in Tarsem’s Mirror Mirror as well as Gore Verbinski‘s The Lone Ranger. Deadline is reporting a project that will see him head into more of the indie field.
With Eric Bana already attached, Hammer has jumped on the directorial debut of the Oscar-nominated Up In The Air co-writer Sheldon Turner. Titled By Virtue Fall, Hammer would likely be replacing the role that Colin Farrell was once attached to. The “gritty drama” will see Hammer as “an ATF agent framed on a corruption beef and sent to a maximum security federal prison. He turns into a badass to survive, and when he emerges from that hellhole, he devotes himself to getting revenge on the person who destroyed his life: his former partner (Bana).”
It definitely looks like different territory for Hammer (and Turner, for that matter), and he is even said to be “bulking up” and “shaving his head” for the film. We also got rumors earlier this year that James Spader, Ryan Phillippe and Carla Gugino were up for supporting roles, but that is not mentioned here. Turner has had an interesting career with work on blockbusters like X-Men: First Class, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and The Longest Yard, so hopefully he can mix those mainstream sensibilities with the story found in Up In The Air.
What do you think about Hammer changing it up for this film?