Leonardo DiCaprio & Sean Penn could Star in THE REVENANT
New Regency is looking to cast Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn as the two lead characters in the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel) directed film The Revenant. The movie is a western based on a book written by Michael Punke. This is a pretty big casting order, but the actors have met with the director already and there's a possibility it could happen.
According to Deadline, "DiCaprio is being courted to play 1820s frontiersman Hugh Glass, who hires on to a fur trapping expedition and is so badly mauled by a bear that he’s unable to be transported back from the wilderness. He hires two men to stay behind. Expecting him to die, they rob and abandon him instead, leaving him helpless. When he recovers, he is hellbent on revenge. Inarritu wants Penn to play one of the men who left him for dead." The script for the film was written by Mark L. Smith.
I think it would be awesome to see these two actors cast in a western. This movie sounds like it could be great, and as a fan of westerns I'm excited about this project.
Here is the full description for the book:
The Revenant tells a story of nearly unimaginable human endurance over 3,000 miles of uncharted American wilderness, spanning what is today the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and Nebraska. Based on the real life of fur trapper Hugh Glass, The Revenant recounts the toll of envy and betrayal, and the power of obsession and vengeance. Punke's novel opens in 1823, when thirty-six-year-old Hugh Glass joins the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. on a venture into perilous, unexplored territory. After being savagely mauled by a grizzly bear, his nearly lifeless body is left in the care of two volunteers from the company-John Fitzgerald, a ruthless mercenary, and young Jim Bridger, the future "King of the Mountain Men." When Indiansapproach their camp, Fitzgerald and Bridger abandon Glass. Worse yet, they rob the wounded man of his weapons and tools-the very things that might have given him a chance on his own. Deserted, defenseless, and furious, Glass vows his survival. And his revenge.
The movie would start shooting next fall if everything goes as planned.