The first member of the Suicide Squad already took himself out before the cameras even started rolling. Actor Tom Hardy (Mad Max: Fury Road) was recently forced to drop out of the upcoming film due to scheduling conflicts. The scoop was picked up today by Jeff Sneider of The Wrap, where he outlined the reasons for Hardy’s departure.
“Hardy was forced to exit the project because Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s ‘The Revenant’ is going over schedule into mid-March, after which Hardy will be needed to promote WB’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which comes out on May 15. “Suicide Squad” is expected to start production in April, and that time crunch is why Hardy had to drop out of the film.”
Filmmaking is a very fluid process and something as small as scheduling, can ruin or change a movie’s outlook. As a result of this, director David Ayer (Fury) has approached Golden Globe nominated Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler), to replace Hardy as Rick Flag, field leader of the Suicide Squad. Gyllenhaal and Ayer have worked together before on 2012’s End of Watch, to great results. In the film, Gyllenhaal played a cop that gets in over his head, which results in some realistic and fiery gun battles. It makes sense for the two to reunite, especially since there is such short notice before filming begins on Suicide Squad. In addition, you need an actor that can stand toe-to-toe with Will Smith in the movie. Surely there will be a power struggle at some point in the film and Ayer needs an actor with enough charisma and cred to bark back at Smith’s Deadshot.
Gyllenhaal is no stranger to comic book movies, although he has never actually appeared in one. He was one of the leading candidates to play Batman in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, however he lost out to Christian Bale. He actually won the role of Spiderman, in Spider-Man 2. During pre-production Tobey Maguire had to drop out, due to injuries to his back. Gyllenhaal was literally the web-crawler for a little while, but Maguire miraculously healed and made it back to set before filming had begun. So Gyllenhaal has clearly been interested in playing a comic book hero for many years. Not to mention he should still be in prime condition after transforming his body for the upcoming film, Southpaw.
Gyllenhaal choosing to play Rick Flagg is a little underwhelming, if that is what he’s looking to do. Flagg is not known to the mainstream audiences, he isn’t even known to many comic book readers. The character isn’t particularly dynamic and doesn’t possess powers of any sort. If Gyllenhaal agrees to it, he will be instantaneously taken out of the running for future DC movie roles. Although the roster of the Justice League is quickly filling out, there are roles like Green Lantern still available. Not to mention it may take him out of contention for roles in the Marvel cinematic universe also, which is continuing to grow at a rapid rate.
Things should move quickly on this story, as Suicide Squad is scheduled to shoot in April. We will keep you up to date on all the latest as the film goes into production. Suicide Squad is scheduled for release on August 5th, 2016.
If he agrees to play Rick Flagg, do you think that Gyllenhaal is a suitable replacement? Let us know on the comment boards, , , and !
Source: The Wrap