THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY Delayed Indefinitely Due To A Christian Bale Injury

We've written a number of times about a potential film adaptation of John D. MacDonald's novel The Deep Blue Good-by, and it appeared that after years in development, the movie was finally ready to move forward with James Mangold (The Wolverine) directing Christian Bale in the lead role. Peter Dinklage and Nicola Peltz were on board, and last we heard, Gone Girl star Rosamund Pike was in talks for the female lead. Shooting was supposed to begin next month, but now THR reports that 20th Century Fox has scrapped the project — maybe for good.

Bale has suffered a torn ACL, and since this movie was said to be pretty physical for him, the studio has decided to put the project on hold. There are conflicting reports: some say the project is done for good, while others say there's still a chance it could make it to the screen with other people involved. (Brad Pitt was reportedly approached to replace Bale, but couldn't make the scheduling work.) I've heard pretty awful things about the script, so this could be a blessing in disguise; hopefully they'll be able to bring someone else on to write another draft, and once that's in order, go back out to talent and directors and try to secure a group that's just as solid as the one they had before things fell apart.

I suppose there's technically a slim chance the movie could eventually move forward with the same people attached, but Bale is pretty damn busy these days and Mangold has to get started on The Wolverine 3 pretty soon if he's going to meet that 2017 release date. I'll definitely keep an eye out for further news on this one, because I was looking forward to seeing this adaptation. Hopefully the project isn't completely dead.