A few weeks ago, we delivered the news that Nicole Kidman would hop on her leading lady bike to make sure Lee Daniels' "The Paperboy" could make its rounds, but the project was still stuck in a ditch due to original star Tobey Maguire dropping out to get his Gatsby on.
Now Variety reports "2012" star John Cusack is fulfilling the Mayan prophecy that he would replace Maguire in this film, taking over as a death row prisoner accused of killing a local sheriff.
Kidman would play the woman who writes letters to Cusack's prisoner, then promptly falls in love with him and sparks an investigation into his possible wrongful imprisonment. Complications ensue.
"Paperboy" will be take two on a Cusack/Kidman pairing, as they were originally meant to headline together in 2004's woeful "Stepford Wives" before Cusack dropped the hell out. Zac Efron and Matthew McConaughey are still attached to co-star in the drama, which will mark Daniels' first film since "Precious."
The "Say Anything" star is no stranger to troubled productions of late, having starred in the long-delayed "Shanghai," which wrapped production in 2008 and will supposedly see stateside release this year, as well as thriller "The Factory" which also completed in 2008 and currently has no street date. We'd love to see Cusack make a splashy comeback in an Oscar-worthy vehicle like "Paperboy," so we'll hold our boomboxes high in salute.
