Painfully slow news day rumor mill: Brad Pitt to star in movies based on Red Dead Redemption, Bob Dylan song
We’ve entered the dying days of August, a time when the normally star-filled sky of showbiz news stretches into a “Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite” blur—and when we greasy cogs in the blog factory are forced to fill our quotas by passing along rumors, like the one that says Brad Pitt is “the hot favorite” to play John Marston in a Red Dead Redemption movie. The origin: Showbiz Spy (home of the “Britney Spears to get naked in a movie!” report) quotes “a source” as saying that plans are in the works to turn the hit Rockstar video game into “an epic Western movie, but with a few modern touches,” and that Pitt “is perfect for the role and is being given first refusal.” Of course, that doesn’t mean he’ll take it—or that this project even exists outside of a few “what if?” conversations in the offices of studio executives, if even that—but there you go. For its part, Rockstar certainly hasn’t made any announcement about selling the adaptation rights, and the whole thing is reminiscent of the supposed Grand Theft Auto movie that never materialized.
Besides, much like his partner, Brad Pitt’s name is frequently bandied about as a “possible lead” for just about everything—like the other rumor being reported today by Pajiba that Pitt could star in Brownsville Girl, based on the Bob Dylan song of the same name. Jay Cocks (Gangs Of New York) drafted a script at the behest of Dylan himself, whose 11-minute collaboration with playwright Sam Shepard tells an epic, Badlands-style tale of an outlaw and his long-lost lover. (Naturally, the screenplay has been described as “a cross between Bonnie And Clyde and The Shawshank Redemption.”)
And while this project has actually been kicking around for a while, Pajiba reports that it’s only now being dusted off for possible direction by Crazy Heart’s Scott Cooper, and that Pitt has been offered the lead role of Henry Porter—a part that once upon a time belonged to Johnny Depp. Again, there’s nothing concrete as of yet—and it would take both Pitt and Cooper getting their schedules in sync for it to happen—but of the two rumored Brad Pitt projects buzzing for our attention on this otherwise listless Friday, it’s the one that isn’t completely implausible.