This is more of an update really. Last week we reported on rumours that Scarlett Johansson was topping Cameron Crowe’s list for the female lead in his upcoming We Bought A Zoo, with Amy Adams, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Rachel McAdams also in contention.
Well, Deadline reports Johansson is now in final negotiations for the role, and will almost certainly play it. As we said last week, it’s a fairly pivotal and potentially noteworthy role though. The hook for the film is that’s it’s a truly incredible real-life tale, of the sort that would seem made up if it weren’t true. Despite having no experience looking after animals, Ben Mee bought the delapidated Dartmoor Wildlife Park almost on a whim.
He then moved his entire family to Devon, rechristened the attraction Dartmoor Zoological Park, gave the entire thing an overhaul and rehabilitated the 500 animals there. However the heart of the story is that one of the reasons the family embarked on such a drastic change was to get a fresh start after Mee’s wife battled back to health following a brain tumour. Sadly though, as they struggled to finance the zoo revamp and get the animals properly housed, her tumour re-emerged.
It’s the sort of role that could land Johansson an Oscar nomination if she does it well. And if you’re wondering what all these yanks are doing in this British tale, things have been altered slightly, so that while Ben Mee and his family are from Blighty, the film will see them changed to Americans, but still coming to run an English zoo.
Shooting will start soon, with a December 2011 release already pencilled in.