David Cronenberg Lines Up Colin Farrell And Marion Cotillard For Cosmopolis

Last summer as Comic Con was in full swing, David Cronenberg announced that he'd direct an adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel Cosmopolis. At the time he'd been trying to get The Matarese Circle made at MGM with Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington. But Cruise bailed and Matarese was left belly up.

Cosmopolis got put off a while, however, when financing came through for A Dangerous Method, Cronenberg's adaptation of The Talking Cure, a play about Freud and Jung. But Cosmopolis is still kicking, and it now has Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard attached to play the lead couple.

One of the important details that was missing when the film was announced last year was the screenwriter, but along with this casting news Variety mentions that Cronenberg has adapted the novel himself. That's great news; the director is a huge car aficionado, and the novel has an unusual automotive aspect. That is, it takes place entirely in a limo.

Cosmopolis tracks Eric Packer, a 28-year old billionaire who encounters odd characters and situations as he travels across midtown Manhattan in his luxurious stretch limo to get a haircut from his father's old barber. Or, as Variety says, "the thriller follows a multimillionaire on a 24-hour odyssey across Manhattan. Farrell will play the asset manager who loses all his wealth over the course of one day. Cotillard will play his wife."

Given recent economic issues, it's easy to see why this might be moving again. And the idea of Cronenberg working with Farrell is intriguing. The actor is on a roll, booking parts in this, Fright Night and Horrible Bosses.

There's no studio on board this one yet; a Paris-based company, Kinology, is selling international rights at Cannes, and the film is being produced by Cronenberg's company Antenna, and Alfalma Films out of Portugal. Which is great; I love when Cronenberg works as an independent. Especially with a source novel like this, which isn't quite the typical salable fare.

Plans are to shoot the film from March through May of 2011.