Oscar winner Batman/Patrick Bateman/newsie Christian Bale is in talks to play New Zealand mountaineer Rob Hall in Everest, a film version of the disastrous Mount Everest expedition of 1996. Hall, along with three other members of the party he was leading, died of exposure when a freak blizzard struck during their descent from the summit. In the same two-day time span, four members of two other groups on the mountain also perished. All told, 15 people died on Everest that year, making it the deadliest in the history of the mountain. The event has inspired numerous works, including Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air.
Everest is being developed by Universal and Working Title, and wants to start shooting in Iceland during the summer. Bale has starred in a great survival drama before (Rescue Dawn), a great movie has previously been made of out a real life event that Jon Krakauer wrote about (Into the Wild), and director Baltasar Kormákur has… well, he’s got a spotty track record, but still. This is an interesting project. Keep your eye on it.
