Ok, so
R.I.P.D. isn't going to suffer quite as much as I thought it would with
the exiting of Zach Galifianakis in one of the lead roles a few weeks back. A replacement has been quickly found and it's the two time Oscar winner and living Hollywood legend
Jeff Bridges, who has just entered talks for the Universal film according to
Deadline. Suddenly this feels like it could be a huge tentpole. Although not confirmed, we can most definitely presume 'The Dude' is negotiating to play the centuries old gunslinger from the Wild West who teams up with
Ryan Reynolds' recently murdered contemporary police officer in the PG-13 supernatural buddy cop movie, based on
Peter Lenkov's Dark Horse comic of the same name. Both the gunslinger and the cop are part of R.I.P.D. (Rest In Peace Department) - basically the police department of the dead whose job it is to keep the dangerously deceased quiet. I guess it's a movie that carries the same comedy/action tone as Hellboy or Ghostbusters and it'll be
Red director
Robert Schwentke's job to make all the genre-bending tones work smoother than he did with that particular uneven movie. Of course we all know Bridges can play grizled gunslingers in his sleep and having picked up yet another Oscar nomination for his performance in
True Grit, we can only guess he is to reprise something similar here and I have to say I very much like the idea of a Reynolds/Bridges dichotomy. Rooster Cogburn as part of the undead? Awesome. Filming is set to begin in a couple of weeks in Boston but it very much depends on Ryan Reynolds. WB are desperate to get
Green Lantern 2 into development and might call on Reynolds to scrap R.I.P.D. as I mentioned a few weeks back. Bridges meanwhile is ready to go and committed - he only has his
new country album to plug this summer so let's hope that if Reynolds is busy, Universal decide to re-cast because the attachment of Bridges is too good to pass up.