Last week it was revealed that James McAvoy was in talks for Danny Boyle’s Trance, with initial reports suggesting that he would be taking the role initially earmarked for Michael Fassbender. However it now seems that while Fassbender is indeed out, it isn’t his part that McAvoy is up for.
Twitchfilm says that it’s actually Colin Firth who’s being eyed to take Fassbender’s place as Aiden, while McAvoy will play Simon. The pic is remake of a 2003 British movie directed by Joe Ahearne. An assistant at an auction house masterminds the heist and teams up with a gang of thieves, but suffers a blow to the head and wakes up with amnesia. He is the only one who knows where the paintings location is and after his continued failure to remember, the gang begins to suspect duplicity on his part and hire a female hypnotist to get into his brain. It isn’t 100% clear whether Simon is the auction house assistant and Aiden the head of the gang of criminals, but we suspect it’s that way around.
Scarlett Johansson is also in the running, as she is the top contender to portray Elizabeth, who is presumably the hypnotist. The roles haven’t been officially offered to Colin Firth or Scarlett Johansson yet, but it’s suggested no one says no to Boyle (although that’s slightly undermined by Fassbender doing just that) and so he may well get both of them.
The plan is for Boyle to shoot the film in September, then go to work on the Olympics Opening Ceremony, waiting to finish post-production on the movie until after the sports spectacular is over, with an early 2013 release being eyed.