Somebody could, and really should, write a book on the troubled history of Jane Got a Gun.Where do we begin? Let’s zap back to 2012 when Natalie Portman signed on to star in the Brian Duffield script. The script revolves around Jane Hammond(Portman), whose husband turns on his gang and returns home barely alive. The gang, led by John Bishop comes back to finish the job, and Jane turns to her ex-lover Dan Frost for help in defending her homestead.
Lynne Ramsay soon signed on to direct, the thought of Ramsay directing a Western got us all going. Michael Fassbender joined the film in the Dan Frost role, and Joel Edgerton signed on to play villain John Bishop. A week before filming, Fassbender had to drop out to film X-Men: Days of Future Past and was quickly replaced by Jude Law. Things only got worse as on the first day of filming, Lynne Ramsay didn’t show up and left the production, for reasons that have remained murky to this day. Gavin O’Connor(Warrior, Miracle) was brought in to direct, and the film seemed to be back on track. Except Jude Law dropped out right after Ramsay did, citing that he had signed on to work with Ramsay and Ramsay only. Bradley Cooper was brought on to play Bishop, but quickly dropped out to film American Hustle. Finally, after almost two months since the original start date, Ewan McGregor stepped into the role of John Bishop, with Noah Emmerich and Boyd Holbrook joining the cast as Jane’s husband Bill Hammond and John Bishop’s younger brother.
A release date of August 29th of this year has been set for quite some time, but today Relativity Pictures pulled the film from their release calendar to save it for a later date. Reasons for the shift are unknown at this time. My hope is that they realize that they have something special on their hands for awards season, but who knows. It’s unfortunate this film is facing another pitfall as it has quite a bit going for it. The cast is very intriguing, and O’Connor’s last film Warrior was a terrific surprise. Here’s hoping Jane Got a Gun will nab a release date soon, and this film can finally speak for itself to audiences.
Source: THR
