If you thought Run All Night was something of a comedown from the formally elastic, consistently thrilling thriller Non-Stop, Jaume Collet-Serra‘s next project might be more your speed. Deadline tell us he’s eyed something of 127 Hours / Gravity / Jaws mash-up entitled In the Deep, which follows a young woman whose surfing trip — seemingly taken to come to terms with the death of her mother — is ruined when she becomes stuck a mere 20 yards from shore on a buoy, stopped by the presence of a great white shark. Another close-quarters thriller with even higher stakes? Sign me up!
Little word on the project, scripted by Anthony Jaswinski (Vanishing on 7th Street), is otherwise available, but being “an emotional piece for a young twentysomething star” should ensure that casting begins not long after Collet-Serra signs.
Meanwhile, The Guardian have learned Ralph Fiennes will follow-up his recent The Invisible Woman with a biopic concerning Soviet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. His latest behind-the-camera effort, in which he will not star, is based on Julie Kavanagh‘s Nureyev: The Life, and will be scripted by David Hare (The Reader), though that doesn’t limit the potential scope. More than a performer, Nureyev is just as commonly referred to as a defector — a title earned through a political process that included French authorities — and is known for his love affair with fellow dancer Erik Bruhn (hello, awards!), as well as an eventual film career.
Needless to say, Fiennes, Hare, BBC Films, and producers Gabrielle Tana (Philomena) and François Ivernel have a number of options on their plate.
Another Deadline story reports that Stephen Gaghan has at long last begin mounting a new project — just not at all what anyone would’ve guessed. Rather than another hyperlink story following some corroding aspect of our society, the Traffic and Syriana writer is instead partnering with Disney for an action-adventure picture based on the experiences of Charles Darwin. Likely the younger Darwin, who once spent five years voyaging to chart South America’s coastline — a supposedly formative experience that, through a Disneyfied lens, will probably now include sword fighting and jungle chases.