Gosling to star in Winding Refn’s next film – and the one after that
US actor Ryan Gosling – the star of Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s award-winning Drive - will also play the lead in Refn’s next film, Only God Forgives, and the one after that too, which will be a remake of Logan’s Run.
”It is difficult to say what works so well between us, but it simply does, so why not just continue,” said Refn, whose Drive garnered him the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes. International trades named him the Danish wunderkind and Carey Mulligan co-stars in the action crime drama.
Staged by Refn and producer Lene Børglum’s Space Rocket Nation with French competitive sales companies Wild Bunch and Gaumont (for the first time working on the same project), the $4.8 million Only God Forgives will shoot from February 2012 in Bangkok.
UK actors Kristin Scott Thomas, Luke Evans, Thai actor Vithaya Pansringarm and pop star Yaya Ying will join Gosling in the cast for Refn’s original story ”with the tone of a western, although it is not difficult to find elements of Pusher [Refn’s debut] in it”, said the director.
Gosling is Julian, whose Thai boxing club is the front for his family’s drug-smuggling operation. When his brother is murdered, their mother wants revenge and Julian starts the search for the killer. Supported by the Danish Film Institute, the film will be ready by late 2012.
After Only God Forgives, Refn and Gosling will star in Silver Pictures’ US remake of Logan’s Run, which was UK director Michael Anderson’s 1976 Michael York-Jenny Agutter idyllic sci-fi future that had only one drawback – life must end at 30 (it was actually 21 in William Nolan’s novel).
In the meantime, Refn has endorsed the UK project for a new version of Pusher (1996), which was his first thriller, about a drug-pusher’s life spinning out of control, to be staged by Vertigo Films (which distributed the original) and Embargo Films and directed by Spanish-born Luis Prieto.
Matthew Read and Richard Coyle have scripted, with Bronson Webb and Agyness Deyn joining the cast. ”To see my characters Frank and Tony in London, one of the most exciting and diverse cities in the world, is an opportunity not to be missed,” Refn added.
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