Eva Mendes and Greta Gerwig Bring Female Presence to Cianfrance’s ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’

Deadline reports that Eva Mendes will play the robber’s love interest (Gosling) and mother of his child, and Greta Gerwig is in talks to play the politician’s wife, joining the already cast Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling in The Place Beyond The Pines. Despite the supporting role status, seeing how Derek Cianfrance brought out a career best in Michelle Williams, despite the supporting role status, I doubt that Eva Mendes and potentially Greta Gerwig will play throwaway characters. Production is set to begin next month, and further casting announcements should be made shortly.

Gist: Co-written by Derek Cianfrance and Ben Coccio, this is about a motorcycle rider (Gosling) who, after having a child, begins robbing banks to support the baby. Cooper plays the part of a cop turned politician who goes up against Gosling’s character.

Worth Noting: Producers include: Lynette Howell, Alex Orlovsky and Jamie Patricof (who all backed Cianfrance’s brilliant sophomore film) and Sidney Kimmel (who produced Gosling’s Lars and the Real Girl). 

Do We Care?: Blue Valentine was tops in our books in 2010 and Drive proved that Gosling could play the “tough guy” — obviously, this is already among our most anticipated titles of 2012. Here’s our interview with Cianfrance at last year’s Cannes where we briefly discussed the project and how we weren’t prepared to wait a dozen years for TPBTP.