A bit of a Breaking Bad themed casting roundup for you guys:
- Bryan Cranston is in talks to co-star in Legendary Pictures' The Great Wall for director Zhang Yimou.
- Aaron Paul has signed on to Miramax's The 9th Life of Louis Drax for famed horror director Alexandre Aja.
Hit the jump for more on these two established and talented actors continuing to get work.
Starting off with Bryan Cranston, Deadline is reporting that he is in talks to co-star in The Great Wall for Zwick. This project really seems to be picking up steam since it was only yesterday that we were reporting on the possibility of Matt Damon tackling a different role. The story was developed by Legendary Pictures' Thomas Tull and Max Brooks (author of World War Z). It appears to be a sci-fi take on how the wall was built, which begs the question, "are there Great Wall conspiracy theorists out there?" As Matt pointed out yesterday, you can't blame the studio for wanting to tap the Chinese marketplace a little bit with this one.
On to Aaron Paul. He'll be joining Jamie Dornan in The 9th Life of Louis Drax. The Miramax film will be directed by Alexandre Aja and was written by Max Minghella, the son of Anthony Minghella who made a splash in his role in The Social Network a few years back. Here's the synopsis:
The film is based on Liz Jensen’s best-selling novel, which revolves around a psychologist (Dornan) who begins working with a young boy who has suffered a near-fatal fall and finds himself drawn into a mystery that tests the boundaries of fantasy and reality.
Variety reports that Paul will play the father of the boy so I can sort of guess at the brand of flustered, confused anger he will bring to the table. I like these guys, so my fingers are crossed for both of these projects.
