Aaron Eckhart, Sean Bean And AnnaSophia Robb Join Dark ‘Peter Pan’ Project
As twoSnow Whitefilmsgear up to go intoproduction, the next big fairy tale that’ll be racing to the big screen isPeter Pan.Several competing projects, all with slightly altered takes on the classicJ.M. Barrietale, are in various stages of development and nowone seems to have jumped aheadof the pack. Essential Entertainment has reportedly castAaron Eckhart,Sean BeanandAnnaSophia Robbin a dark take on thePeter Pantalelast year rumored to be calledPan, written byBen Magid(Hack/Slash) and directed byBen Hibon(who did the animated sequence inHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One). In the film, Captain Hook (Eckhart) and his partner Smee (Bean) would chase Pan, a villainous kidnapper, whose last victim Wendy (Robb) helps track him down.
ScreenDaily brokethe news of this casting, which was reportedly once set up at New Line as a possible directing gig for Guillermo Del Toro. The package hopes to kick off pre-sales in Cannes before shooting beings in October.
Word of this project first was revealed byVariety last Novemberbut then, in March, we ran an articledetailing several of the possible Pan projectsand this one did not appear on the list. However, the plot description is exactly like a spec supposedly written by Aaron Henry and Kirk Kjeldsen. We’re not sure if Magid did a new version of that spec or if the two projects are totally independent, as The Hollywood Reporter says one thing and IMDB Pro says another.
Either way, flipping thePantale to make him the villain and Hook the hero kind of goes against the whole point ofPeter Pan.Peter Panis about never wanting to grow up and the joys of childhood. It’s not about kidnapping or Captain Hook, they’re totally secondary. It’s almost as if the idea of even loosely associating the film withPeter Panis insignificant when it could just be a Sherlock and Watson type team chasing a brutal child criminal. Why does it have to be Pan? But, if Eckhart, Bean and Robb have all signed on, chances are it works.
Does this sound like a cast, and take on the material, you may get behind?
