I’m starting to feel we’ll never see another film by Bourne and Green Zone helmer Paul Greengrass. He’s been attached to so many different projects over the last 18 months that it’s almost become a Hollywood right of passage to get him involved at some stage in the production process of a movie. However there are now two more possibilities on films he might (but going on his recent record, probably won’t) direct, due to the fact his planned Martin Luther King biopic, Memphis, has been delayed by at least a year.
According to Vulture, Greengrass is currently eyeing Maersk Alabama and Rush, along with a third film we don’t know any details about.
Maersk Alabama is the current title (expect it to change) of the adaptation of Richard Phillips’ book, A Captain’s Duty, which details how he was captured by Somali pirates while helming the ship, Maersk Alabama, in 2009. Tom Hanks is attached to star and Billy Ray is writing the script. Sony hopes to start shooting this fall, after Hanks wraps production on Cloud Atlas.
Rush comes from screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen) and is based on the true story of Formula One race car driver Niki Lauda, who nearly died during the 1976 season. Lauda’s car caught on fire during an August 1, 1976 race, which caused the driver to lose his right ear and lapse into a coma. The story will also follow the heated rivalry between Niki Lauda and James Hunt.
Knowing Greengrass, there’ll probably be three completely different movies on his radar in a couple of weeks, but both these would seem a good fit for him.