Colin Farrell And Eric Bana Circling Sheldon Turner's 'By Virtue Fall'

Sheldon Turner became the original impetus for Jason Reitman's film Up in the Air when he wrote the original spec script based on Walter Kirn's novel, and he's got his own directorial debut set to film in the coming months. The revenge drama By Virtue Fall will be based on his own original screenplay, and now it has two possible leads: Colin Farrell and Eric Bana.Deadline says the two are in 'early talks' for roles, though Mike Fleming says the indie isn't offering quite the payday that each actor wants. (Or, more properly, that each actor's reps want.) Sounds at this point like Bana is a more likely lock — not much of a surprise, given the number of pictures that Farrell has booked in the past couple months. (Horrible Bosses, Fright Night, possibly David Cronenberg's adaptation of Cosmopolis.) The film is being produced by Nicolas Chartier, who became famous for being locked out of the Oscars after an email campaign to promote his film The Hurt Locker. He became infamous in some circles for his later comments about piracy.

Deadline says the film "charts a professional and personal relationship between two characters that evolves from friendship to betrayal and retribution," and that description nicely complements the original logline, which described "a man who is framed by his mentor and winds up in prison. Once released, he's fixated on getting revenge on his former partner, who has flourished in his new life and tried to cleanse himself of the past."

Easy to see how Farrell and Bana would be great in that pairing of roles. Off the top of my head, the basic nature of each actor means I see Bana as the lead who is framed, and Farrell as his former partner. Which immediately leads me to hope that Turner has the opposite in mind; I'd like to see Bana in the semi-antagonistic, or at least defensive role.