The Mountain Between Us, a 2010 bestselling novel by Charles Martin is being adapted to film and Idris Elba, is in talks to play the male lead. Elba is renowned for his roles in Luther, The Wire and Beasts of No Nation and recently stole the show at the Screen Actors Guild Awards winning not one but two awards.
The star would play the role of Dr Ben Payne, replacing Charlie Hunnam who has recently dropped out of the project. Rosamund Pike who had been scheduled to play the female lead Ashley Knox had also ceased her involvement in the venture which has sparked the search for a replacement. Pike and Hunnam are not the only ones to have passed on the main roles with Michael Fassbender and Margot Robbie also having been associated with the development. Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now) is set to direct the adaptation which is being produced by Peter Chernin and Jenno Topping.
The book follows the experiences of two strangers wrenched together by circumstance, Dr Ben Payne is flying east after having attended a medical conference; and Ashley Knox, an attractive, writer is also flying east to attend her wedding. The pair survives a plane crash that strands them deep within the High Uintas Wilderness. Lost and far from rescue the pair struggle to survive not just the elements but the feelings they have for one another.
Scott Frank and J. Mills Goodloe have written an adapted screenplay and it has been set up through Fox 2000 and Chernin Entertainment. The romantic drama is set for release in 2017 according to IMDb.
Given the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, Elba’s casting as the male lead who in the books was white has been the subject of much praise.
Elba is set to appear in a number of upcoming projects with voice roles in Finding Dory and the Jungle Book. He will also appear as the antagonist Krall in Star Trek Beyond and will be working alongside Gemma Arterton in A Hundred Streets Opposite.
He is even rumoured to be a contender to be the next James Bond.
