Bre-X Marks the Spot: Weinsteins Mining for Stephen Gaghan’s “Gold”

The movie business has a lot in common with the speculative stock market. Those that get a piece of the action early can hope for a huge payday in the long run. The Weinsteins are building their 2016 slate, getting into the game prior to lensing with The Founder and now, Gold. Deadline reports that the Weinstein Co. won the derby over for the domestic rights to Stephen Gaghan‘s third feature film starring Matthew McConaughey and Edgar Ramirez and packaged by Teddy Schwarzman’s Black Bear Pictures (they started with Ramin Bahrani’s At Any Price and most recently preemed Eli Roth’s Knock Knock). The film would receive an assured 2500 screen release. The film which was described as a sort of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre has already been picked up in several territories and will begin lensing this June in Thailand, New York and New Mexico. Look for a major film fest premiere in 2016.

Gist: Written by Patrick Massett & John Zinman, this is based on the 1993 Bre-X Mineral Corporation mining scandal, this follows a rough-around-the-edges prospector who stumbles onto one of the largest gold mines in the world in the Indonesian jungle.

Worth Noting: The writing team broke into the biz with 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

Do We Care?: While the project has toiled around for a while with Michael Mann and Spike Lee mentioned has possible helmers, we’re glad to see Syriana creator get back into the director’s chair.