Now this we’d pay to see. Harrison Ford is reportedly set to team with prolific Danish helmer Nicolas Winding Refn presumably for the Paul Schrader scripted “The Dying Of The Light,” according to Empire Magazine (via DenOfGeek).
Den of Geek don’t have the exact quote, but we do thanks to our U.K. writer (and we’ll put up a scan soon). Basically at the end of an Empire article on Ford he says, “I’m developing a film right now with Nick Winding Refn. I’m hopefully going to start shooting in March.”
While it isn’t that much to go on we’ve run down our list of projects on Refn’s slate and this one seems to fit.
Despite the role being linked to Robert De Niro last year, Schrader apparently wrote the script with Ford in mind, and DeNiro was rumored to be attached last year. However, DeNiro recently switched agents and Deadline Hollywood ran down a list of his upcoming projects, and there was no mention of “The Dying Of The Light.” The role calls for an older actor, so if DeNiro is gone, Harrison Ford stepping in makes perfect sense.
Back to Schrader, who should need no introduction (and if he does, you have some serious Netflix-ing to do), but he is best known for this decades long working relationship with Martin Scorsese that helped turn out such films as “Taxi Driver,” “The Last Temptation Of Christ,” and “Raging Bull.” He is less celebrated – and severely underrated — as a director, having helmed “Auto Focus,” “Affliction” and “Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters” and is currently set to also set to shoot the upcoming Bollywood song-and-dance, family crime flick, “Xtreme City.” His scripts are generally gritty, emotionally raw and often have thematically religious undertones and we couldn’t be more excited that Refn will be tackling a Schrader screenplay.
“The Dying Of The Light” centers on an aging CIA agent who begins to starts to become afflicted by blindness while on his last mission. It should be noted that its being tossed around most places that agent is affected by Alzheimer’s but Refn himself set us straight on this last year. Thematically, the film may draw from the Dylan Thomas poem, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” from which it’s title is derived from. The poem repeats the titular line and “rage, rage against the dying of the light.” As for Refn, who has shown considerable visual flair, a film in which the lead starts to lose his sight will lend itself to some particularly intriguing challenges and we’re anxious to see how the director will translate it to celluloid.
With production set to start in March, this now looks set to be Winding Refn’s next project but don’t expect it to be his only one this year. Last year saw the Dane put out “Bronson” and “Valhalla Rising” (technically a 2010 release but) and with his Keanu Reeves-led “Jekyll,” Bangkok-set neo-Western “Only God Forgives” and Gore Verbinski-produced heist film still on the horizon, 2010 could be a busy one and we’re already placing this on our 2011 anticipated list. Btw, Harrison Ford, by joining this project, you’re now off the hook for “Extraordinary Measures.” — additional reporting by Kevin Jagernauth