A couple of years ago, Aaron Guzikowski’s script, Prisoners, ignited a huge amount of interest and it didn’t seem like it would be long before we saw it on the big screen. However putting all the pieces together has taken far longer than expected. First it had Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg attached to it, then they were out and Hugh Jackman was interested, and the last we heard (which is quite a while ago now), Leo DiCaprio was in talks for the film.
Securing a director hasn’t been much easier, with Antoine Fuqua hired to get the film going as quickly as possible, but then it fell off the fast track when he left. However earlier this year Denis Villeneuve (Incendies) was brought onboard to helm.
Now it seem the casting maching is gearing back up, with ComingSoon reporting that Michael Fassbender has been offered the lead role of Keller Dove. However there’s no news on whether Fassbender is likely to take to part. Prisoners has been described as Mystic River meets Taken, as it’s about a small-town man (which would be Fassbender’s part) who becomes frustrated after the police fail to find out who kidnapped his daughter and her friend. He takes matters into his own hands when he takes hostage the person he thinks is responsible, which brings him into conflict with the policeman assigned to the case.
Hopefully they’ll start casting the other roles soon, and we might finally get to see the long-gestating movie on the big screen.