Date: 8/22/2010
Author: Jay A. Fernandez
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Carey Mulligan puts it in ‘Drive’ with Bryan Cranston (exclusive)

By Jay A. Fernandez | August 22nd, 2010

 “An Education” star Carey Mulligan is in negotiations to climb into the passenger seat of the action thriller “Drive,” which already has Ryan Gosling at the wheel. “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston is also negotiating to join the cast.

Nicolas Winding Refn (“Bronson”) is directing the adaptation of the James Sallis novel about a nameless Hollywood stuntman (Gosling) who moonlights as a freelance getaway driver during robberies. When a bank heist goes wrong, he ends up on the run with a contract on his head and an ex-con’s girlfriend (Mulligan) in his car.

OddLot Entertainment, Bold Films and Marc Platt Prods. are producing the project, which starts shooting around Los Angeles next month. Hossein Amini (“Killshot”) wrote the adapted screenplay. [CORRECTION: The project used to be set up at Universal but it is no longer at the studio. As of now, the movie has no domestic distributor; WME is repping the rights.]

Producers include Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Michel Litvak, Adam Siegel and John Palermo. David Lancaster, Gary Michael Walters, Bill Lischak and Linda McDonough will serve as executive producers on the project.

The filmmakers held an open casting call last Saturday looking for Hispanic performers to play tough inner-city L.A. characters.

 “Drive” is the first project that Bold and OddLot are co-producing and co-financing, and their joint sales division, Affinity International, will be handling global sales.

The CAA-repped Mulligan, who earned an Oscar nomination for “Education,” next stars in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” which Fox will release Sept. 24, and “Never Let Me Go,” which will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival ahead of its theatrical release through Fox Searchlight on Sept. 15.

The UTA-repped Cranston has won back-to-back Emmys for his work on AMC’s “Breaking Bad” and is up for a third on Aug. 29. He is currently in production on the Michael Connelly adaptation “The Lincoln Lawyer,” and he recently wrapped shooting on Tom Hanks’ “Larry Crowne” and Andrew Stanton’s “John Carter of Mars.”

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