Last summer it seemed Gary Oldman would finally end the long wait for his sophomore directorial outing in a grand fashion with his “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” co-star Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes all lined up for roles in the Eadweard Muybridge biopic “Flying Horse.” Despite the talent lined up, however, the film appears to be at an impasse.
In an interview with Absolutely Magazine (via Bleeding Cool), Oldman reveals that even a film starring Voldemort, Khan and Commissioner Gordon — and now including Amanda Seyfried — cannot muster enough funding. “The script doesn’t fit their model,” “The Dark Knight” actor explained, before adding: “You need someone who will actually be a risk taker. It’s set in San Francisco but you could save yourself $100k if you do three weeks in Romania and then you get a tax subsidy if you do a week in Ireland. It’s fucking eye-crossing!”
For those of you not familiar with the Muybridge story, he was a photographer instrumental in the development of motion pictures but more importantly — and scandalously — he murdered a theater critic who had an affair with wife and fathered a child in the process (and as Fiennes recently told us, “That’s the centerpiece of the film!”) Muybridge would have been played by Fiennes with Oldman nabbing the role of his attorney and Cumberbatch as the object of Muybridge’s fury. The plan was to shoot early this year but with eighteen-years and counting waiting for Oldman’s “Nil By Mouth” follow-up, what’s another year at this point? Fucking eye-crossing, indeed.