Blockbuster screenwriter Akiva Goldsman ("The Da Vinci Code," "I Am Legend") is beckoning some of the biggest emerging talents in town to put on their parkas and trudge through the snow with him for "A Winter's Tale."
The Hollywood Reporter claims Tom Hiddleston, the Brit who made "Thor" hot'r (yay, anagrams!) as the villainous Loki, and the fairest "Mirror Mirror" star of them all Lily Collins are just two of the actors testing next week for "Tale," Goldsman's directorial debut.
Benjamin Walker ("Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter") is also competing for the male lead, while Bella Heathcote ("Dark Shadows") and Jessica Brown Findlay ("Downton Abbey") will have to pillow fight with Collins for a role.
The movie is a period genre-twister that involves "a thief on the run who, when breaking into a wealthy man’s home, strikes up a relationship with the man’s terminally ill daughter." Apparently flying horses and a 100-year time-jump figure into the long-in-development project, based on a supernatural novel by Mark Helprin.
Goldsman is both the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of "A Beautiful Mind" and the Razzie Award-nominated scribe behind "Batman & Robin." Make of that what you will, but we're hoping he's at least learned his lesson about putting nipples on costumes.
Interestingly, Goldsman is using some old buddies in smaller roles as an incentive for Warner Bros. to move forward with "A Winter's Tale," namely bad boy Will Smith playing a judge and Russell Crowe as a ruthless American gangster.
