After playing sinister characters in “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford” and “The Killer Inside Me,” Casey Affleck is joining the fight for good, as he’s in negotiations to play the angel Gabriel in Legendary Pictures’ “Paradise Lost.”
Alex Proyas (“The Crow”) is directing the heavenly epic, which is a big-budget adaptation of John Milton’s 17th Century poem. Bradley Cooper and Ben Walker star as warring archangels Lucifer and Michael, while Djimon Hounsou co-stars as Abdiel, the angel of death.
A six-winged angel, Gabriel was created by God to serve as a messenger.
As for the coveted roles of Adam and Eve, Camilla Belle (“10,000 BC”) has been offered the latter role, while “Rock of Ages” star Diego Boneta is the frontrunner for the former. The first man and woman on Earth, Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden after eating forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and committing original sin.
Legendary’s Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing along with Vincent Newman via his Vincent Newman Entertainment banner.
Stuart Hazeldine developed the primary draft of the screenplay, originally written by Byron Willinger and Philip de Blasi. Lawrence Kasdan provided a polish as well as Ryan Condal, who delivered the most recent draft. Project will fall under Legendary’s overall agreement with Warner Bros.
Affleck recently wrote, directed, produced and co-starred as himself in the Joaquin Phoenix pic “I’m Still Here.” Thesp will soon be seen in Brett Ratner’s “Tower Heist” and heard in Focus/Laika’s animated film “ParaNorman.”
Affleck is repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
