Winding Refn in Driver’s Seat for ‘Drive’, Gosling Will Step on Gas

After a lengthy career in genre cinema, Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn is finding himself in the driver’s seat. With a couple of Hollywood options available to him, the filmmaker is now doing donuts around Drive – a Universal project that once had Neil Marshall on board to direct and had Hugh Jackman manning the wheel. Another bit of interesting news is that the helmer will be teaming with Ryan Gosling – the actor who blew way audiences at Sundance for his perf in Blue Valentine hasn’t touched mainstream movies since Fracture back in 2007.

Scripted by Hossein Amini, this is based on the James Sallis’ novel which is set in the seamy underside of Southern California and Arizona and centers on a stuntman who moonlights as a wheelman during robberies and discovers that a contract has been put on him. I’ve still got the scruffy-looking, sunglass wearing Gosling from Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine in mind, so would he stick to the non-shaven look for a noir film with seedy hotel rooms and nocturnal world filled with crime? This character might be the most interesting driver since Clive Owen’s no questions asked type in the BMW films?