Brad Pitt no longer looking for THE LOST CITY OF Z
Yesterday, news broke that Brad Pitt was in negotiations to re-team with The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford director Andrew Dominik for a new mobster comedy called Cogan's Trade. Of course Pitt had to make room in his schedule to take on the project, so he said goodbye to Paramount Picture's The Lost City of Z.
Pitt will no longer star in the film, and according to Vulture, the reason "was an impasse with Paramount over compensation for Lost City's director James Gray (The Yards, We Own the Night)." It sounds like they just couldn't come to an agreement. Pitt used the opportunity to finally move on and leave the Lost City of Z behind him.
This movie sounds like it's going to be awesome, and I'm sure it will eventually happen once Paramount gets it together. I don't think the studio will have a problem finding another big name actor to replace Pitt in the lead role. It seems like a character that a ton of actors would jump at the chance to play.
For those of you who don't already know, the film is an adaptation of a non-fiction book by New Yorker staff writer David Grann about the quest to find El Dorado. "Pitt was supposed to play Col. Percy Fawcett, who led a 1925 expedition into the wilds of Brazil, only to vanish as inexplicably as the golden Amazonian city he was seeking."
Here's a description of the book:
A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.
After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century:" What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z?
In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world’s largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions helped inspire Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions around the globe, Fawcett embarked with his twenty-one-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilization--which he dubbed “Z”--existed. Then he and his expedition vanished.
Fawcett’s fate--and the tantalizing clues he left behind about “Z”--became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness. For decades scientists and adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett’s party and the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes, or gone mad. As David Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett’s quest, and the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle’s “green hell.” His quest for the truth and his stunning discoveries about Fawcett’s fate and “Z” form the heart of this complex, enthralling narrative.
Doesn't this make you want to go out into the amazon and hunt for the city of El Dorado? Sounds like a great story, and I really want to see this movie get made! Who would you like to see replace Pitt in the part?