TRON: LEGACY star Garrett Hedlund has been offered the lead in director Joe Wright's adaptation of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, entitled PAN, which sees the origin of the shadow-chasing rebel from Neverland. However, the lead role isn't for Peter Pan, but for Hook, who is set to square off against the evil pirate Blackbeard with both Hugh Jackman and Javier Bardem being rumored for that role.
In Wright's adaptation (with a script by Jason Fuchs) "an orphan is taken to the magical world of Neverland, where he becomes the savior of the natives and leads a rebellion against evil pirates." I'm not sure how Peter Pan plays into this at all, but it seems odd to call it PAN when he's not the lead. Of course, Spielberg already has the claim to HOOK, so there's that. Hedlund showed a lot of promise in TRON: LEGACY, but has seemed to have forgone the big-budget flicks since then in favor of smaller, independent fare like ON THE ROAD and INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS.
PAN is now being positioned as one of Warner Bros. tentpoles for 2015 as it has slid into the original release date slot reserved for BATMAN VS SUPERMAN. Given the hype for Bats vs Supes, it feels like PAN is a weak consolation prize, but perhaps Wright and co. will pull out something great and original from the oft-adapted book.
PAN is set for release on July 17, 2015.