Scheduling delays on Bryan Singer's eagerly anticipated X-Men: Days Of Future Past have forced Michael Fassbender out of the Lynn Ramsay‘s Western Jane Got a Gun.
Joel Edgerton, who was looking to play the villain in the Brian Duffield-scripted western action film, will switch sides to step into the Fassbender's hero role.
The best thing is that Jude Law comes on board in Edgerton's former part as the villain and rounds out the lead cast led by Natalie Portman.
The Side Effects star plays the leader of a gang who exert violent strength on a dissenting member; he returns home riddled with bullet wounds and barely alive. When her husband's gang eventually tracks him down to finish the job, young and pretty wife (Portman), tracks down an old flame and ask her ex-lover (Edgerton) if he will help defend her farm.
Latest news did not mention Brazilian-born thesp Rodrigo Santoro.
Gun is now scheduled to begin filming in April.
Here's the American Film Market (AFM) synopsis:
Young and pretty with a soul of pure steel, Jane Hammond (Natalie Portman) is a good girl married to one of the worst baddies in town. When her husband Bill (Jude Law) turns against his own gang, the vicious Bishop Boys, and returns home barely alive with eight bullets in his back, Jane knows it's time to ditch the dress for a pair of pants and strap on her own gun. As the relentless leader John Bishop gears up for revenge, Jane's best hope for her family's survival rests with her old love Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton) – a gunslinger whose hatred for Bill is only slightly overshadowed by his love for Jane. Together Jane and Dan spring clever traps, luring Bishop's men to certain death just as their old feelings for each other resurface amidst the flying bullets.
With director Lynne Ramsay (WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, MORVERN CALLAR) at the helm, the rich dimensions of these characters find their best ally with Jane out in front, taking her fate into her own hands with the kind of bravado legends are made of.
