Ryan Reynolds Joins Cast

http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/ryan-reynolds-to-star-in-mississippi-g rind/

EXCLUSIVE:Ryan Reynolds is set to star with Ben Mendelsohn in Mississippi Grind, the next film for writer/directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden. The film focuses on a gambler on a losing streak who teams with a younger gambling addict, hoping to change his luck. They road trip through the South hoping fortune will smile upon them. Fleck and Boden most recently directed Half Nelson and It’s Kind Of A Funny Story. The film is being produced by Electric City partners Jamie Patricof and Lynette Howell, and John Lesher through his Le Grisbi banner. Production will start early next year.

Reynolds is coming off Safe House, and next stars with Jeff Bridges in the Robert Schwentke-directed R.I.P.D. He has been mixing studio work with character pieces, and also completed the Atom Egoyan-directed Queen Of The Night and the FilmDistrict/Endgame thriller Selfless. The latter is directed by Tarsem Singh, about a wealthy elderly man who gets a body transplant, with complications ensuing when he starts to uncover the body’s origins. Reynolds is repped by CAA, and lawyered by David Weber. Mendelsohn is repped by CAA. Fleck and Boden are repped by WME and Management 360, and the film is being packaged by WME and CAA, which will sell domestic. Panorama is selling foreign. Emmett Furla Films had been in talks to finance the film, when Jake Gyllenhaal was attached to play the older gambler. That financier is still in the mix on the film, I’ve heard. Electric City is ready to start production on the Tim Burton-directed Big Eyes with Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams.