Ahh, nuts. Just when we thought John Hillcoat was amassing a stellar cast for his adaptation of the depression-era bootleggers brothers tale, “The Wettest County In The World,” now called, “The Promised Land,” it appears the director has been met with a bump in the road.
Amy Adams, who was set to play one of the female leads — the paramour of one of the Bondurant brothers featured in the story — is evidently pregnant now and confirmed to Collider that she’s going to be taking some time off and won’t resume acting work until the summer of 2010.
Hillcoat’s ‘Promised Land’ is supposed to start shooting in February, so unless that date has changed, presumably she’s dropped the role. “I just finished ‘The Fighter,’ with David O. Russell,” she said. “And then, I’m taking some time off right now. I’m not sure [how long]. Probably until next summer.”
That is unfortunate, but it still appears that Hillcoat at least has Ryan Gosling and Shia LaBeouf to play two of the three brothers. Other actor’s names who were once thrown around were Scarlett Johansson, Paul Dano and Michael Shannon and it’s unclear if they’re still in talks or what, but Shannon would be perfect. Johansson was presumably the red-head role Adams was going to take, but she’s out of the picture one would think?
We read the script, written by Nick Cave, a few weeks ago and with Adams out, we still think Christina Hendricks of “Mad Men” would be a strong candidate, as the character is supposed to be somewhat of a buxomy red-head.