Talk about a project that goes against the grain. First you have Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn leaving the genre fair he is known for and going full on Hollywood. Then you have indie actor Ryan Gosling taking the Jason Statham route, and finally, Carey Mulligan, the pint-sized actress might play the bad girl on Drive – a Universal Pictures action burning rubber flick that is set to begin shooting in Los Angeles next month.
If she does land the gig, Mulligan would be toplining Geoffrey Fletcher’s directorial debut Violet and Daisy directly after this project and she’ll be in Toronto on the first weekend of the Toronto Int. Film Festival for the premiere of Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go.
Scripted by Hossein Amini (whose most recent screenplays 08’s Killshot and 2010’s Shanghai haven’t have not been in good posture with the company holding their rights) this is based on the James Sallis’ novel, set in the seamy underside of Southern California and Arizona, centers on a Hollywood stunt driver (Gosling) who moonlights as a wheelman during robberies and discovers that a contract has been put on him. He ends up on the run with an ex-con’s girlfriend (Mulligan) in his car.
OddLot Entertainment, Bold Films and Marc Platt Prods. are producing the project, which starts shooting around Los Angeles next month. Producers include Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Michel Litvak and Adam Siegel. David Lancaster, Gary Michael Walters, Bill Lischak and Linda McDonough will serve as executive producers on the project.
