EXCLUSIVE: It’s not easy maintaining a career after you’ve been a Bond girl: just ask Maud Adams, Izabella Scorupco or Denise Richards. If you can find them, that is. Even the likes of Halle Berry and Eva Green haven’t found their career paths the easiest since they teamed up with 007. One actress who’s firmly bucked the trend is Rosamund Pike, who, following her role as ice maiden Miranda Frost in “Die Another Day,” went on to a key role in Joe Wright‘s “Pride & Prejudice.” It’s only in the last few years that she’s really come into her own, however, with a show-stealing performance in “An Education” being followed this year by two excellent supporting roles in “Made in Dagenham” and “Barney’s Version.”
She’ll appear next year in both the bird-watching comedy “The Big Year” alongside Jack Black and Steve Martin, and opposite Rowan Atkinson in “Johnny English Reborn,” but it looks like she’s set to graduate to full-on leading lady status on a new project with some impressive pedigree. The Playlist has confirmed with production reps working on the film that Pike and “Inglourious Basterds” star Diane Kruger are in early talks to star in “The Godmother,” an adaptation of the novel by Carrie Adams.
The story follows Tessa, the childless serial godmother of the title, as she grapples with the problems of her friends, while questioning her no-strings-attached lifestyle. The project’s set up at Unanimous Pictures (“The Visitor,” “Funny Games“), with a script from veteran Oscar-winning writer Ron Bass (“Rain Man,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding“) while Justin Chadwick (“The Other Boleyn Girl” and recent festival favorite “The First Grader“) is currently attached to direct.
Nothing is signed in either case yet, but we’re also hearing that a very high-profile actor is reading the script for one of the key male characters. We’re big fans of both actresses, and it bodes well for the project that they’re interested. Indeed, it’s been years since a really strong film in the genre — 10 years have passed since the original “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” for instance, and the names involved suggest this could be a contender — scribe Bass has had huge success in the genre in the past, and, while we weren’t big fans of “The Other Boleyn Girl,” Chadwick’s work on TV’s “Bleak House” was excellent. A summer shoot is being aimed for, with a 2012 release likely to follow.
