Even while he continues to try to find both funding and a home for his huge Dark Tower project, Ron Howard is focusing on other, more manageable movies. He’s now moving full speed ahead on racing pic Rush and has just cast German actress Alexandra Maria Lara in the female lead.
It’s not known exactly whom she’ll play in the story, but Lara, who appeared in the likes of Control, Downfall and The Reader, will be starring alongside Thor's Chris Hemsworth and Inglourious Basterds’ Daniel Bruhl.
Rush focuses on the rivalry that sprang up in the 1970s on the Formula One racing circuit between British champion James Hunt (Hemsworth) and Austrian nemesis Niki Lauda (Bruhl). The competition between the pair became so intense that despite nearly dying in a fierce crash, Lauda returned to the track after just six weeks in hospital to keep up the pressure on Hunt.
Peter Morgan, who last worked with Howard on Frost/Nixon, is behind the script and Working Title is backing the film. According to Variety, it doesn’t have a distributor just yet. Still, you’ve got to figure that since Title and Howard’s production company Imagine are both based at Universal, the studio will end up nabbing the rights. Yes, even after the whole Dark Tower incident…