So there’s already a film in development called Everest, and it’s set to star Tom Hardy in a story about a real life British adventuring hero that set out on a tragic journey to the peak of Everest after the conclusion of WWI.
Apparently Christian Bale wants in on some of that freezing to death action.
Though he looks to tell a different story, Bale is apparently teaming up with director Baltasar Kormakur (Contraband, The Deep) to dramatize a disastrous expedition from 1996. The title of their project is also Everest, at least for the time being. It’s still unclear where either of these projects are going to land on the respective schedules of the two actors/directors, and who knows which one will be a super-serious Oscar contendor and which will be more of a disaster action film, or whatever. On paper they’re easy to set as rivals, but the timelines and tone of each is just as likely to put plenty of distance between them.
That said, I have to credit Joe Carnahan here. Ever since The Grey showed us how real men die in the cold, everyone from Bale to Hardy to Casey Affleck have been tripping over themselves to get some kind of below-freezing survival movie in production. I guess shivering personal triumph has become the new goalpost for cinematic masculinity!