EXCLUSIVE: Rosario Dawson has won the hotly contested female lead in the Danny Boyle-directed Fox Searchlight drama Trance. She is poised to join James McAvoy and Vincent Cassel, who are both in negotiations to play the male leads in a film that will start production in September. McAvoy’s in talks to play the inside man in an art heist that goes wrong. He runs afoul of an accomplice (Cassel), and Dawson will play a woman who develops an unusual relationship with both men in a thriller that is as moderately budget and edgy as Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. Joe Ahearne and John Hodge wrote the script.
Deadline was first to reveal Trance in early May, when Boyle decided to work in a follow-up to 127 Hours even as he prepares to direct the opening ceremonies of next summer’s Olympics in London. He’s re-teaming with frequent producing collaborator Christian Colson. They will shoot the movie in the fall in London, then put it on a shelf while Boyle devotes himself to the Olympics beginning in January. When the games are over, Boyle will start cutting the film in August 2012 with the goal of having the picture ready for Fox Searchlight to release it in March 2013.
Dawson is currently starring alongside Kevin James in Zookeeper; McAvoy just starred in X-Men: First Class and is filming Welcome to the Punch; and Cassel, most recently seen in Black Swan, next stars in A Dangerous Method, reteaming him with Eastern Promises director David Cronenberg. Dawson’s repped by CAA and Untitled; McAvoy by UTA and UK-based Ruth Young of United Agents, and Cassel by CAA and France-based Adequat.
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