Javier Bardem has signed on to star in J.C. Chandor's next movie "A Most Violent Year" and is in talks to join Sean Penn in "The Gunman," TheWrap has learned.
Studiocanal is fully financing "The Gunman," which will be produced by Joel Silver and Andrew Rona of Silver Pictures. Pierre Morel is directing the action movie, which has Cannes starlet Jasmine Trinca ("Miele") circling the female lead.
Set in 1983, when violence and corruption in New York City ran rampant, "A Most Violent Year," will find Bardem playing an ambitious business tycoon who goes to extreme lengths to control his heating oil empire despite the odds being stacked against him. The film finds him and his wife crossing paths with high-powered lawyers, wealthy bankers, dangerous teamsters and a shady district attorney.
Chandor offered the female lead of Bardem's wife to Oscar winner Charlize Theron but she has officially passed on the project.
Neal Dodson is producing for Before The Door Pictures along with Anna Gerb of Washington Square Films. Glen Basner will executive produce for FilmNation, which is handling worldwide sales. Production is scheduled to start this fall in New York City.
Bardem, who won an Oscar for "No Country for Old Men," is in high-demand coming off his delicious turn as a James Bond villain in "Skyfall." He'll soon be seen alongside Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt in Ridley Scott's "The Counselor."
Bardem is represented by WME.
