Instead Michael Fassbender as the likely choice for Simon the gang leader, his X-Men: First Class legion James McAvoy is in early talks to join Danny Boyle's new thriller Trance. In other words, Professor X is taking over a job originally set for Magneto.
Despite it was announced that he will be the artistic director for the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony, Oscar-Winning director Boyle revealed his intent to helm a thriller that is a remake of Joe Ahearne's 2003 TV movie of the same name and centers on an art heist gone wrong. Here's the plot:
An assistant at an auction house masterminds [an art] heist and teams up with a gang of thieves, but suffers a blow to the head and wakes up with amnesia. He is the only one who knows where the painting's location is and after his continued failure to remember, the gang begins to suspect duplicity on his part and hire a female hypnotist to get into his brain.
So, Trance apparently has the same dark, sexy, hard-edged tone of Boyle's early films Shallow Grave and Trainspotting.
Boyle aims to begin production in September, than he will instantly move on to direct the opening ceremony and after the Olympics end in August, he'll return to Trance to edit and prep the film for a March 2013 release – busy schedule no doubt.
Also for McAvoy, it will mark a very busy rest of the year, as he shoots the British crime drama Welcome to the Punch this summer before the Danny Boyle film is supposed to begin filming.
Producing partner Christian Colson (Slumdog Millionaire) is on board again. The film is budgeted in the mid-teens, which has passed well for Boyle on his last two films, Slumdog Millionaire (cost $15 M) and 127 Hours (cost $18 M).
A long wait that will be …
However, check them both out, McAvoy and Fassbender in X-Men: First Class movie trailer.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frcCCHb9LHc[/youtube]
X-Men: First Class Official Movie Trailer
