Christian Bale, the actor most likely to set a nerd’s secret homoerotic desires afluttering, is looking to make his spurs jingle jangle jingle in James Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma, a classic Western. The 1957 original has a rancher bringing a captured outlaw into town to catch the titular train to meet a court date. The trip becomes a battle of the wills, an experience familiar to any commuter on the New York City subway.
Russell Crowe is playing the outlaw, which means Bale is going to be taking on the role of the heroic rancher. I’m a little concerned that this is going to be Bale playing to what seems to be his decreasing range – that Crowe’s baddie will be garrulous and charming while Bale will be stoic and grim. Mind you, I’m just guessing, but I don’t think I’m going to be far off.
3:10 to Yuma was supposed to start shooting this summer, but it’s been delayed again and again – in fact Mangold has been trying to get this one off the ground for years. At one point Tom Cruise was attached and then he became box office poison. Now the film is supposed to shoot this fall, which would be just before Bale has to don the constricting rubber of the Batsuit for The Dark Knight.