With two major names already leading the cast, the roster for Universal’s The Fall Guy is growing with future Kraven the Hunter actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The upcoming film, directed by John Wick and Deadpool 2 alum David Leitch, is a cinematic reboot of the 1980s TV series of the same name, which starred Lee Majors as Hollywood stuntman Colt Seavers who moonlights as a bounty hunter. Alongside Lee, the cast for the original The Fall Guy series included Douglas Barr as Seavers’ nephew Howie, and Heather Thomas as fellow stuntwoman Jody Banks.
Development on a movie adaptation of The Fall Guy has been in the works for well over a decade now, with Casino Royale‘s Martin Campbell and The Babysitter‘s McG in talks to direct at various points and Dwayne Johnson having been eyed to star in the past. Universal would later land the rights to the property in 2020 with plans to loosely adapt the show with Ryan Gosling leading the cast and Leitch at the helm. This past August brought word that Emily Blunt had joined the cast, and now, another A-list star is joining the thrilling ride of The Fall Guy.
The Hollywood Reporter has brought word that Gosling’s The Fall Guy has cast Aaron Taylor-Johnson for the action-thriller. The Fall Guy will follow Seavers, a past-his-prime stunt double, who ends up working on a film set with a movie star he used to double years earlier, until the actor suddenly goes missing. Taylor-Johnson will play the movie star who goes missing while Emily Blunt has also been cast in the film as a prosthetic makeup artist with whom Seavers used to have a romantic relationship.
Could Gosling & Taylor-Johnson Be The Next DiCaprio & Pitt?
An actor/ stunt double duo set against the La La Land backdrop sounds reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, which featured Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio as a stunt performer and movie star, respectively. In The Fall Guy, Gosling and Johnson seem to have a similar dynamic in this action/adventure thriller as a past-his-prime stunt double and his movie star companion. The similarities don’t end there, however, as like Pitt and DiCaprio, both Gosling and Taylor-Johnson have their own heartthrob histories in the earlier years of their careers, as well as extensive experience in the action genre. Gosling showed his action chops in Blade Runner 2049 and Netflix’s The Gray Man, while Taylor-Johnson is nearly a veteran of the genre at this point in his career, while the English actor starred as the title character in Kick-Ass over a decade ago, and has since appeared in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, in addition to this past summer’s Bullet Train, on which he worked with Leitch.
With future Kraven the Hunter star Aaron Taylor-Johnson now on the roster for the film, anticipation for Gosling’s The Fall Guy is sure to grow as it nears the start of production. Given the film appears to be taking a looser approach to adapting its source material, it will be interesting to see if it takes a buddy comedy approach to its story and create a new fun stuntman/actor relationship in the same vein as Pitt and DiCaprio’s Cliff Booth and Rick Dalton, as well as bring Blunt’s character into the action, allowing her to show off some of what she learned while working on the likes of Edge of Tomorrow and Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Only time will tell when The Fall Guy hits theaters on March 1, 2024.
Source: THR
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