Dueling film projects are nothing new in Hollywood. It happened with ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT, WHITE HOUSE DOWN and OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, and I've lost count of how many Robin Hood movies are currently in the works. Now THR is reporting that Sony and Paramount are both developing biopics about acclaimed mystery author Agatha Christie.
According to the site, Sony is wooing Alicia Vikander to play a "proto-feminist Christie uninterested in a traditional wife role, who instead intersects with the likes of Sherlock Holmes writer Arthur Conan Doyle and Winston Churchill," in AGATHA CHRISTIE. As for Paramount, they want Emma Stone to play the writer in their version (simply titled AGATHA), with the "story postulating what happened to Christie during the 11 days she went missing in 1926."
Both studios need the approval from the Christie estate before they can move forward with the planned films though, and it could be a while before either project receives a green light, since it apparently took Fox seven years to get the approval for its MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS remake. Who do you think would make a better Agatha Christie: Alicia Vikander or Emma Stone?
Vikander has several films set to open this year, including JASON BOURNE on July 29th, and THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS on September 2nd, while Stone can be seen next on the big screen starring opposite Ryan Gosling in Damien Chazelle's LA LA LAND on December 16, 2016.