Getting the intensity of Sean Penn and Christian Bale both on screen at one could prove an explosive pairing, and it may happen as Deadline reports the duo are both circling the war project The Last Photograph for Warner Bros. and director Niels Arden Oplev.
The film has been indevelopment March 2009, when Mongol director Sergey Bodrov was attached to the project, which Kurt Johnstad (300) wrote based on an original idea by Zack Snyder. Now Niels Arden Oplev, who directed the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is on board to helm.
Christian Bale (who’s been rumoured for the movie for a while but now seems firmly attached) is looking to play a war correspondent who witnesses a brutal attack on American soldiers in Afghanistan, and is the only survivor. Sean Penn will portray an ex-soldier who returns to Afghanistan to find the kidnapped family member, who teams up with the war journalist to identify the captors. This brings them into confrontation with tribal regions of Afghanistan, and none of the diplomats will help.
The current plan is to shoot the movie in 2012, once Bale has wrapped up his Batman duties for The Dark Knight Rises.
There’s still a few funding issues to sort out, as while Warner was go to pony up the cash, they’re now stepping away, with Dark Castle stepping into the breach and trying to put a deal together to get the movie made.