Earlier today, it was reported that Jeff Bridges was being courted for a role in Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris‘ upcoming film “He Loves Me.” When we wrote the piece we figured Bridges’ summer was free and there wasn’t much in the way of a conflict with anything except perhaps promotional duties on his new album. Needless to say, we should’ve had our second cup of coffee as we totally forgot that last month, the actor entered negotiations to star opposite Ryan Reynolds in “R.I.P.D.” after the long attached Zack Galifianakis bowed out.
Well, The Wrap is reporting that Jeff Bridges has locked the role in “R.I.P.D.” for the film that, last we heard, was going to have a late spring/early summer shoot in Boston. We’d wager this makes him unavailable for the Faris/Dayton film which starts shooting in July. Set to be directed by Robert Schwentke, “R.I.P.D.” is an adaptation of the Dark Horse comic book about a pair of deceased detectives, one a recently murdered cop, the other a gunslinger from the Old West. Bridges will play the former and we presume Reynolds has the latter role and we think it’s a pretty inspired pairing.
Schwentke is currently riding high off the surprise success of “Red” and while no release date has been set, we figure this will be slotted into the crammed 2012 calendar somewhere. As for Dayton/Faris, they’ll have to keep looking for an actor take the role that was pitched Bridges’ way.
