We have to admit, we were a little worried. After talk surfaced during the awards season of Ryan Gosling and his “Blue Valentine” director Derek Cianfrance reteaming on a new project called “The Place Beyond The Pines” that was set to shoot this summer, word went a bit quiet. But not only is the project alive and kicking the seemingly ubiquitous Bradley Cooper has been offered a role.
Variety reports on the new movement with Sidney Kimmel Entertainment coming to produce and finance the project that is still looking to roll in the summer. Back in December, the film was described as a Jack London-inspired tale about “fathers and guns, and [featured] motorcycles and guns in it.” We chatted with Cianfrance a couple of months later and he shared with us that, “Ryan’s going to play Luke, a motorcycle stunt rider who finds out he has a baby and he tries to become a father.” Now a much more complete synopsis has dropped.
Turns out Gosling’s character is going to turn to robbing banks to support his son, but he crosses paths with a rookie cop (Cooper) and a simmering generational feud begins. “It’s kind of an epic movie. It takes place over a couple of generations and it’s kind of a crime story, kind of a mystery. I’ve had people tell me they feel like its ‘The Deer Hunter’ meets ‘The Godfather,’” Cianfrance told us, and if that doesn’t get you excited, we don’t know what will.
Cianfrance co-wrote the script with Ben Coccio and it will head to Cannes next week for foreign sales. If everything stands as it should, Gosling should shoot ‘Pines’ this summer, “Gangster Squad” after that and presumably “Logan’s Run” in late 2011 or early 2012. As you might recall, Nicolas Winding Refn is gearing up “Only God Forgives” to lens during the summer as well, but he tends to work remarkably fast (“Drive” was still shooting late last fall and it’s already in the can) so we don’t expect the sci-fi reboot to sit idle for too long. As for Cooper, he’s been circling stuff like “The Crow” and more recently “Paradise Lost,” but if he’s smart, he’ll jump on to this one fast.
