VIGGO MORTENSEN ABANDONS SNOW WHITE AND THROWS HIMSELF IN THE RUMOR MILL

I know, in all that godawful back-and-forth, he did say he would appear if they asked him. But Aragorn is not actually in The Hobbit itself, though not even the Appendices place him in any of the goings on around Dol Guldur. It's a huge stretch.

I know Mortensen basically said something like well, it's dumb they would want me, but I'll be damned if anyone else plays Aragorn, so I'll do it if I have to.

They could have signed him before he ever got involved with Huntsman though, so it seems unlikely that's the reason he dropped out. 

As I said on the main page, I will be pretty shocked if he doesn't end up replacing Snow White with one of the following....

1. A Cronenberg project.  Ol' Dave has Cosmopolis with Robert Pattinson next, but if Pattinson's schedule isn't free enough for awhile to film that (Twilight being the culprit)................might Cronenberg decide to make Eastern Promises 2 between now and then?  Supposedly the script is ready and Viggo & Cassell are ready to do it when the time comes, so it is possible.

2. Superman: The Man of Steel.  Viggo hasn't been in anything "high profile" for awhile and might view this as a creatively fun way to bring home the bacon as the villain.

3. The Dark Tower.  Honestly, Viggo could end up doing one of the above AND this..........since it likely won't even start shooting until early next year.  It's a Summer 2013 release, after all, and the first season of the show (which whoever plays Roland WILL have to be in) won't air until that fall.  That's why, despite having Batman and another film to do first, Christian Bale was/is in the running for the part.  Still, this is a possibility for Mortensen, especially since no actor has been announced in the lead.....................which leads me to think that either everyone they are talking to is playing extreme hard ball and/or Bardem has already passed on it.

Best guess?  Robert Pattinson isn't available for Cosmopolis until late this year/early next year (which reports already suggested) due to his shooting/reshoots/publicity schedule for The Twilight Sage: Breaking Dawn Parts 1&2.  David Cronenberg is finished (or almost finished) with post-production on A Dangerous Method (starring Viggo & Fassbender!) has decided he would like to shoot his currently untitled sequel to Eastern Promises before Pattinson is ready to do Cosmopolis.

That's the most likely scenario that I see taking place and is also one that most articles haven't even considered as a possibility.  EP2 has been planned for awhile now and Viggo loves working with David (they've done three films together so far).  While I can see Viggo signing on to do Superman, I have a hard time picturing him dedicating most of his time over the next three or four years to bringing The Dark Tower to the big screen unless he really LOVES the part.  Whoever signs to play the adult Roland Deschain will be signing to portray the character in at least three films and one season of a TV show.  That's a big commitment, especially for someone like Viggo who tends not to chase after summer blockbuster fare.

Yep.  The film is an adaptation of a novel by Don DeLillo.  Here's the books plot (courtesy Wikipedia)......

Cosmopolis is the story of Eric Packer, a 28 year old multi-billionaire asset manager who makes an odyssey across midtown Manhattan in order to get a haircut. The stretch limo which adorns the cover of the book is richly described as highly technical and very luxurious, filled with television screens and computer monitors, bulletproofed and floored with Carrara marble. It is also cork lined to eliminate (though unsuccessfully, as Packer notes) the intrusion of street noise.

Like James Joyce's Ulysses, Cosmopolis covers roughly one day of time and includes highly sexed women and the theme of father-son separation. Packer's voyage is obstructed by various traffic jams caused by a presidential visit to the city, a funeral procession for a Sufi rap star and a full-fledged riot. Along the way, the hero has several chance meetings with his wife, seeing her in a taxi, a bookstore, and lying naked in the street, taking part in a movie as an extra. Meanwhile, Packer is stalked by two men, a comical "pastry assassin" and an unstable "credible threat". Through the course of the day, the protagonist loses incredible amounts of money for his clients by betting against the rise of the yen, a loss that parallels his own fall. Packer seems to relish being unburdened by the loss of so much money, even stopping to make sure he loses his wife's fortune as well, to ensure his ruin is inevitable.

The current confirmed cast.......

- Robert Pattinson

- Juliette Binoche

- Paul Giamatti

- Mathieu Amalric

- Samantha Morton

- Marion Cotillard

It should hit screens next year and will be the first film in the post-Twilight phase of Pattinson's career.  Excellent choice on his part, as far as I am concerned.  Other than doing a western with Hugh Jackman at some point, it looks like Cosmopolis is the only thing he's got lined up to do after Breaking Dawn is completed.