The Road

Not only is he latching himself onto the project, but screen writer Mark L. Smith is letting the rumor mill go crazy in saying that Christian Bale is in the middle of negotiations to star. Smith’s previous writing credits include The Hole and Vacancy.

If this does end up to be Hillcoat’s latest directorial project, it’ll certainly make up for the collapsed production of The Promised Land. The financial woes that hit the project were reason for it to cave in on itself, leaving the Australian director a little more time on his hands than he would want.

Bale has been a bit under the radar as of recent, mainly due to the fact that he’s been filming his role in David O. Russell’s The Fighter. The drama is about boxer “Irish” Micky Ward’s (Mark Wahlberg) unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky (Christian Bale), a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being KO’d by drugs and crime.

In Hillcoat’s last production diary for The Road he reveals the fate of The Promised Land. Read the snippet below from The Playlist.:

“The joke on set and in the edit suite was that we had to get ["The Road"] out before it became a reality. Ironically, the movie industry itself now faces its own apocalypse. The perfect storm has arrived in Hollywood: a global economic downturn combined with piracy and the increase of downloading on the internet – what happened to the record companies years ago but with much higher stakes. The reactionary first phase has kicked in – few films in development, many films put on hold or shut down.

My own new project – with a much-loved script by Nick Cave and a dream all-star cast – has fallen apart. The finance company that we began The Road with has also fallen apart, having to radically downsize to one remaining staff member. The great divide has begun, with only very low-budget films being made or huge 3-D franchise films – the birth of brand films such as Barbie, Monopoly: The Movie – who knows what’s next, Coca-Cola: The Movie?

I end the year appropriately – gazing into the apocalypse of my own industry.”

Disappointed? Relieved? Do not care? Let us know what you think, we are curious.

The project would star LaBeouf and Gosling as brothers wrapped up in Depression-era prohibition bootlegging (JoBlo). There is a to be announced 2010 release date.