Rosamund Pike In Talks For Female Lead in THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY

The Deep Blue Good-By is a project that's been kicking around Hollywood for years now. Based on John D. MacDonald's novel (the first in a set of 21 books), the story follows a Florida beach bum named Travis McGee who lives aboard a 52-foot houseboat called the Busted Flush (which he won in a card game), and who alleviates his cash-flow problems by hiring out his services as a "salvage consultant," working only when his money runs out. He recovers property for clients, taking half of the value of whatever they find. Leonardo DiCaprio was once in talks to star as McGee, but since then Christian Bale has signed on to play the lead role. And now it appears that he's found a female companion.

Variety reports that Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike is in talks to play the female lead for director James Mangold, who worked with Bale on 3:10 to Yuma and recently directed The Wolverine. Pike did a phenomenal job in Gone Girl - her performance as Amy Dunne was one of my favorites of last year. I'm excited to see her career jump to a new level, and working with the Oscar-winning Bale and a solid filmmaker like Mangold should help it progress nicely.

It sounds like this might be her next movie. Pike has already lined up a leading role in an action romance called The Mountain Between Us opposite Pacific Rim star Charlie Hunnam, but apparently this project will film first because they need to wait on weather conditions to fit the story's setting for Mountain, which already has a February 10th, 2017 release date penciled in. There's no official release date yet, but I'm guessing we'll see The Deep Blue Good-By arrive in theaters sometime next year.

Fox doesn't have too many big franchises these days, so if The Deep Blue Good-by takes off, they could easily turn it into a massive property with tons of sequels. First things first, though - make a great movie, and the rest could follow.