Rachel Weisz Circles 'The Light Between Oceans' with Michael Fassbender

It's been a quiet couple of years for Oscar winner Rachel Weisz, with only The Bourne Legacy and Oz the Great and Powerful occupying her time in that span. Neither of those really demanded a lot from her, either, but her next project could as she's in early talks to join Michael Fassbender in Derek Cianfrance's The Light Between Oceans.

The Wrap has the news of Weisz entering negotiations for the adaptation of M.L. Stedman's novel, which also has Alicia Vikander on board. Set on the Australian coast after WWI, the story follows a lighthouse keeper and his wife who make the fateful decision to raise the 2-month-old child they discovered in a rowboat alongside a dead body. They soon discover that raising the child comes with consequences neithe was prepared for. Weisz would play the child's mother if she signs on.

Rachel Weisz, Derek Cianfrance, and Michael Fassbender? Yes please. No word on when filming will begin but hopefully it will be soon enough to be ready in 2015. Weisz next appears in futuristic romance, The Lobster.

Read More

Alicia Vikander Joins 'The Light Between Oceans' and 'The Danish Girl'

After turning heads in a pair of highly-praised period features, A Royal Affair and Joe Wright's Anna Karenina, Alicia Vikander has been mentioned for just about every major female lead in Hollywood. With upcoming roles in The Man from UNCLE, Tulip Fever, and Testament of Youth, she doesn't appear to be going away any time soon, and now Vikander is adding two very high-profile projects to keep busy with.

According to Deadline, Vikander has landed the female lead opposite Michael Fassbender in The Light Between Oceans. Directed by Derek Cianfrance from M.L. Stedman's novel, the story centers on a lighthouse keeper on a remote Australian island who along with his grieving wife rescues an abandoned baby in a rowboat. Raising the child as their own, it isn't long before the consequences of their decision are felt.

And once that film is wrapped, Vikander will join Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl from Les Miserables director, Tom Hooper.  This one had Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard attached to it some time ago, but they dropped out some time ago. Based on David Ebershoff's novel about Danish painter Einar Wegener, one of the first men to undergo a sex change, the story follows his relationship with wife Gerda (likely to be Vikander) who loved and encouraged her husband even as he went through a process that ended their marriage.

Read More

Michael Fassbender Eyes Derek Cianfrance's 'The Light Between Oceans'

Perhaps better than most, Michael Fassbender has found the right balance of mainstream popcorn flicks like X-men: First Class, more refined fare like 12 Years a Slave, and quirky art house stuff like Frank. With his latest turn as Magneto set to storm multiplexes when X-men: Days of Future Past opens next week, Fassbender has set his sights on working with indie auteur Derek Cianfrance.

Last fall we learned that Cianfrance, best known for Blue Valentine and last year's incredible The Place Beyond the Pines, had signed on to direct an adaptation of M.L. Stedman's novel, The Light Between Oceans. Fassbender is now in talks to join the film which is set in Australia and follows a lighthouse keeper and his wife who discover a 2-year-old girl and a dead body in a row boat. They think the girl to be a blessing and decide to raise her as their own, only for the decision to prove tragic.

The combination is definitely worth getting excited about. Fassbender is a remarkable talent and Cianfrance is an actor's director, capable of pulling career-best performances from his cast. The potential here is simply off the charts. [THR]

Read More

Derek Cianfrance to Direct 'The Light Between Oceans'

The first two features by  director Derek Cianfrance have explored the familial ties that can bind and fray. Both films starring his frequent collaborator Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine looked at a happy marriage as it begins to crumble, while this year's The Place Beyond the Pines showed that the personal demons of the father are frequently passed on to the son. Now for his latest film, Cianfrance is taking on what is sure to be another unflinching family drama.

Dreamworks has announced that Cianfrance will helm an adaptation of M.L. Stedman's best-selling novel, The Light Between Oceans, and the premise sounds like it's right up his alley....

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

While it's unclear if Cianfrance will be penning the screenplay, Harry Potter's David Heyman will produce for his Heyday Films banner. The director's schedule is pretty wide open, with only the HBO TV series Muscle on his list of things to do, so he could conceivably get to work on The Light Between Oceans pretty quickly. Here's a look a teaser for the novel....

Read More