Gary Oldman got huge acclaim and two BAFTAs for his directorial debut, 1997’s Nil By Mouth, but since then he’s pretty much stuck to acting. Now he’s planning to helm another movie, as TheWrap reports that he’s set to direct a biopic about film pioneer Eadweard Muybridge, called Flying Horse.
It’s also said that he wants Ralph Fiennes and Benedict Cumberbatch to star, but no deals have been set in place yet.
Muybridge was a photographer who set out to settle a bet for California governor Leland Stanford in the early 1870s, over whether a horse ever had all four hooves off the ground while running at full gallop. Using an array of 12 cameras, each set to fire one after the other, he helped prove that horses did indeed have all feet off the floor, although not in the way most people had presumed.
These sequential photographs, often shown as a moving picture series in magic lantern shows, paved the way for the motion picture projector and the film industry as we know it. However, Eadweard Muybridge is also famous for murdering reputed theater critic Major Henry Larkyns, who was having an affair with his wife, Fiona.
The biopic will focus on the love triangle, with Ralph Fiennes being eyed to star as Eadweard Muybridge and Benedict Cumberbatch circling the Major Henry Larkyns role.
In addition to writing and directing, Gary Oldman may also play the smaller role of Dennis Spencer, the district attorney who defended Eadweard Muybridge in his murder trial. The current hop is to shoot next year, if financing comes together.