Rosamund Pike is in talks to star opposite Christian Bale in that previously announced adaptation of The Deep Blue Good-by, according to Variety. The upcoming film is based on a 1964 John D. MacDonald novel, and it stars Bale as Travis McGee, a hardened “salvage consultant” who lives on a houseboat in Florida and specializes in recovering other people’s property through less-than-legal means. It’s not yet clear who Pike would play nor how closely the film will stick to the original story, but her character is being billed as the “female lead.”
The book’s plot kicks off when a broke single mother and dancer named Cathy convinces McGee to investigate the manipulative ex-con who misused her family. Pike could potentially play that role, or the role of Lois Atkinson, the “frail and broken” woman—abused by the same ex-con—who can “barely get out of bed” until McGee gives her a new lease on life. Both sound more like the fragile characters Pike generally played before her subversive turn in Gone Girl, and it remains to be seen whether director James Mangold (3:10 To Yuma, The Wolverine) and screenwriter Dennis Lehane (Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island) will ask Pike to tap into any of the ruthless aggression she showed off as Amy Dunne.
And while the McGee series could have big franchise potential for Bale—MacDonald wrote 21 books based around the character—it’ll likely be a one-time deal for Pike. (According to the 1981 novel Free Fall In Crimson, McGee “cut a wide swath through a wall of female flesh.”) Thankfully, the former Bond girl already knows a thing or two about that.