Among the many thousands of projects that are bubbling away in a cauldron at Guillermo del Toro’s Man Cave is a little film, once called Pan, that would feature a dark-tinged story blending Peter Pan with detective fiction. Now the film has Aaron Eckhart, Sean Bean and AnnaSophia Robb on board to star.
Ben Hibon, who worked on the animation sequence in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, is in the director’s seat for the movie, which is currently looking for a new title. The plot finds Eckhart as Hook, a troubled former police detective obsessed with tracking down a strange, childlike kidnapper who has been swiping and killing kids. Bean – currently to be found stomping about in armour as Ned Stark on Game of Thrones – has snagged the role of Smee, the chief detective on the force and Hook’s last remaining friend.
**Soul Surfer's **Robb, meanwhile, will play the haunted Wendy, who survived an encounter with the criminal but ended up in an asylum for her trouble. She finds her way out to help Hook on his case.
Though the pic once had a home at New Line, it’s since been let loose and Essential Entertainment is pimping it at Cannes this year in the hopes of drumming up healthy pre-sales and cash to fund a planned October shoot.
If both this and Channing Tatum’s planned Pan prequel come to fruition, 2012 could be the year JM Barrie’s hero has a distinctly different image…