Try as they might, Hollywood just can’t get John D. MacDonald‘s pulpy Travis McGee books turned into the franchise they want. "The Deep Blue Goodbye" has been kicking around Hollywood for years, with Leonardo DiCaprio (now producing) once eyed to star, and directors like Paul Greengrass and Oliver Stone taking a look. Things seemed to settle last year when Christian Bale signed up, with James Mangold ("The Wolverine," "Walk The Line") at the helm. But it looks like the "3:10 To Yuma" reunion with director James Mangold has been sidelined.
THR reports that Bale has suffered a torn ACL which will keep him out of the action thriller. The actor is currently shooting the financial world drama "The Big Short" with Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, and Steve Carell, but ‘Goodbye,’ which was scheduled to start lensing in May, would’ve required more fancy footwork. The story follows a “salvage consultant,” who specializes in recovering client’s otherwise forever lost property in return for half the property’s value as a fee, who goes in search of a treasure hidden by a soldier after World War II.
For now, Fox has put the project on ice, but it’s not clear if it will be scrapped entirely or just pushed back. Certainly, the timing couldn’t be worse. Mangold has "The Wolverine 3" on the horizon, due in cinemas in 2017, so his window to make the movie is small, and Bale has scripts crossing his desk everyday, so he may move on to something else as well.
A bit of a bummer, but if I’m being honest, this movie was never hugely compelling for me, so it’s far from devastating it’s not happening. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see how Fox proceeds.