Coming off an Oscar win for The Fighter and currently shooting one of the biggest films of 2012, Christian Bale has a wide variety of projects to choose from as his follow-up to The Dark Knight Rises.  His third (and supposedly final) Batman film wraps shooting this fall and he’s eyeing various high-profile projects as his follow up.  Variety reports that he’s considering Clint Eastwood’s remake of A Star Is Born starring Beyonce Knowles, Michael Mann’s Gold, the villain role in Spike Lee’s remake of Oldboy, Scott Cooper’s Out of the Furnace, and Darren Aronofsky’s Noah.  Bale was supposedly set for Zack Snyder’s The Last Photograph but he is no longer involved with that project.  Variety also doesn’t mention the untitled Terrence Malick film Bale reportedly signed on to last week.

According to Variety, Bale won’t make his decision until The Dark Knight Rises wraps shooting in November nor is he necessarily the front-runner for any of these movies.  It’s also worth noting that all these roles play to Bale’s dramatic side even though he gave audiences a glimpse at his ability to go beyond grim-and-gritty in The Fighter, and it’s easier to get excited about him signing onto a film after that great performance.

The Last Photograph sounds far outside Zack Snyder’s wheelhouse.  The story centers on a journalist (Christian Bale) and an ex-special ops soldier (Sean Penn) who travel to war-torn Afghanistan to help a missing family member who’s been kidnapped.  However, he came up with the idea for the story, 300 co-writer Kurt Johnstad wrote the script, Snyder was producing, and now it looks like he’ll direct.  Twitch reports that Snyder has stepped in to replace Niels Arden Oplev (the Swedish adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and that Snyder will make The Last Photograph his follow-up to Man of Steel.

It’s a major change of pace for Snyder since a drama that sends two men into present-day Afghanistan doesn’t lend itself to lingering shots on sexy bodies or constant speed-ramping.  I would never criticize a filmmaker for stretching beyond their current expectations and with Snyder at the helm, The Last Photograph could garner newfound respect for the director or be an absolute disaster that consigns him to genre flicks.

Sean Penn is now looking at joining Christian Bale in the drama The Last Photograph. The film, said to be in the vein of The Searchers and Taken, is based off an original idea by Zack Snyder about a war correspondent in Afghanistan who is the sole survivor of an attack on Americans. Deadline reports that Bale is set to play the journalist, while Penn is circling the role of an ex-special ops soldier who enlists Bale’s help to find a missing family member who has been kidnapped. In exchange, Bale’s character gets the story.

Snyder’s 300 co-writer Kurt Johnstad penned the script, and Niels Arden Oplev (the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) is set to direct. The film was set up at Warner Bros. but apparently negotiations are ongoing to move the film to Dark Castle, where Joel Silver and Andrew Rona would come aboard as producers. The report states that Penn is very interested in joining the project, having just turned down roles in the Superman flick Man of Steel (the villain, perhaps?) and Ruben Fleischer’s Gangster Squad. Plans are to shoot The Last Photograph in 2012 after Bale wraps The Dark Knight Rises.

Christian Bale is reportedly set to star in the drama The Last Photograph.  Pajiba reports that the film is based off an idea from writer/director Zack Snyder.   The script is from Synder’s 300 co-writer Kurt Johnstad with Niels Arden Oplev (the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) in talks to direct.  The only thing known about the “original idea” is that the drama “revolves around a photograph that becomes the catalyst for a journey two men undertake through war-torn Afghanistan.”

Bale will next be seen this December in David O. Russell’s The Fighter.  He is also currently set to star in Terrence Malick’s next movie and, of course, Batman 3.  Snyder’s next film, Sucker Punch is set to hit theaters in March 2011, but we’ll be getting our first look at it in a few weeks at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.