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Jude Law Follows Director Lynne Ramsay to Exit 'Jane Got a Gun'

by Ben Pearson
March 20, 2013

Rarely has a film transitioned from "promising indie" to "trainwreck" in a quicker span of time than Jane Got a Gun, the western that was to be directed by We Need to Talk About Kevin helmer Lynne Ramsay before she bailed on the production by not showing up to work on the first day of filming. Warrior director Gavin O'Connor was quickly called upon to replace her very quickly, with shooting rescheduled to start this Thursday, but now the film has received another blow as Deadline reports Jude Law has bailed too after he was slated to play the villainous gang leader who comes after Natalie Portman's injured husband. Read on!

The circumstances of Ramsay's departure still haven't been fully revealed, and so far we've only heard from producer Scott Steindorff through dispatches he's sending to Deadline. Obviously this is only half of the story, but things aren't looking good for the movie at this point. Michael Fassbender left the project after butting heads with Ramsay (and theoretically due to scheduling conflicts on X-Men: Days of Future Past), but after some reshuffling of the cast, Law came in to take over a vacated villain role because he was really excited to work with her. Now that she's out, he's not sticking around, either.

And in yet another interesting twist, perhaps the reason we haven't heard anything from Ramsay's camp on this is because her manager has a unique tie to this production. The Huffington Post reached out to Ramsay's manager and found out that she was being represented by Jessica Steindorff, the daughter of producer Scott Steindorff, but that was before she bailed on the film. Saying that she considers "family first," Jessica says she is no longer repping Ramsay, so the plot thickens.

It's going to be really tough to fill that vacated slot before tomorrow's scheduled start date, but perhaps O'Connor could reach out to his Pride & Glory star Edward Norton as a potential replacement? It'd be cool to see him in a western, and he hasn't had much going on in the past couple of years. We were looking forward to seeing Law return to a stylized villain role - something he hasn't really done since Road to Perdition - and it's a shame that this movie seems to be coming apart at the seams. This is a passion project for Portman (who is also producing), and Edgerton worked with O'Connor on Warrior, so it would seem as if those two aren't going anywhere. Hopefully things can get sorted out and back on track quickly so we still have a chance to see this movie in one form or another.

Filed under Casting, Development, Movie News

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