A lot has changed since we last caught up with Animal Rescue, an adaptation of a short story from acclaimed crime novelist Dennis Lehane(Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone). In May we learned that Neil Burger was planning to direct it, but with his recently taking the reins on Divergent, a replacement needed to be found, and it's arguably a more exciting pick.
Michael Roskam, director of foreign Oscar-nominated Bullhead, will take over with Lehane adapting his own screenplay. Tom Hardy, who already has a couple of anti-poaching films on the way, will star in the film about a "lonely Boston bartender who rescues a puppy from a garbage can and becomes the target of the dog's abusive and mentally unstable former owner, while simultaneously getting caught in the middle of a criminal conspiracy playing out in his mob-controlled bar." Yep, I think that's right up Hardy's alley. Abusing animals makes Bane angry.
Both Hardy and Roskam are busy, but if everything comes together filming will begin early next year.
