First up is Sony's film, which is to be directed by Doug Liman and was to star Tom Hardy. However, with the studio aiming to get rolling next March, the scheduling couldn't be worked out with Hardy and now someone else must be found to play George Mallory, whose 1924 expedition was met with tragedy. On the wish list to replace Hardy is Benedict Cumberbatch, while Joel Kinnaman, James McAvoy, Tom Hiddleston, Henry Cavill, Luke Evans, Dan Stevens, Matthew Goode and Jim Sturgess are in the mix to play Mallory's rival, George Finch. Most of these guys will have similar timing issues as Hardy so who knows if any of them will be able to fit Everest into their schedules.
And then there's Universal and Working Title's Everest film, which recently lined up Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Hawkes, and Jason Clarke to star. Baltasar Kornakur (The Deep) is on board to direct, and the plan to get moving next month has been stalled by the loss of a major co-financier. So now the search is on for another to share the burden, and that shouldn't be too difficult considering the starry cast. The story is also a pretty good one, based in part on Jon Krakauer's memoir Into Thin Air, about his surviving a 1996 trek up the mountain that was hit by a blinding storm that killed eight climbers. [Deadline]
