Catherine Hardwicke has been confirmed to helm the gothic modern retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood tale with It Girl Amanda Seyfried reportedly a front-runner to join her, according to 24 Frames.
Titled “Girl With The Red Riding Hood,” the project has been developed by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way shingle who hired “Orphan” scribe David Johnson to on work the script last August.
Word around Hollywood now is that Johnson’s script, which reportedly focuses on the dark, dangerous and romantic elements of the story, is “elevated genre material,” has the potential to be the next ‘Twilight,” and is of course therefore subsequently moving full steam ahead.
Seyfried meanwhile is only “among the names being considered,” but seems like an ideal choice after slowly but surely working her way up the ladder to her now leading lady status. Previous efforts such as “Mamma Mia,” “Mean Girls” and “Jennifer’s Body” have built Seyfried a solid fanbase (a serious consideration for ‘Twilight’-inspired films) and she actually has the talent to boot. Her latest film was “Dear John” with Channing Tatum which will forever be known as the film that ended the box office topping reign of “Avatar.”
Hardwicke should currently be in production of her Emile Hirsch led musical, modern retelling of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” which was slated to begin last October but nothing has been heard from that project for a while. It’s apparently in pre-production still which means something delayed it (money?). Nevertheless, it seems likely she’ll follow that up with this project later in the year if she doesn’t jump on it first.