Hugh Jackman takes the torturous lead in revenge flick Prisoners

Well this is an interesting development in the career of a man who more or less sang and danced his way to stardom (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

It is being reported that Jackman has accepted the lead role in a “gritty thriller” called PRISONERS, wherein he will play “a small-town carpenter whose young daughter and best friend are kidnapped. After the cops fail to find them, his character takes the law into his own hands, kidnapping the man he suspects is responsible. But as the kidnapping continues, the carpenter begins to have doubts that he has the right man.”  Well shit.  Sounds a bit like DEATH AND THE MAIDEN, but with a carpenter.  Speaking of which, I assume that various carpenter skills and tools will figure rather painfully into the proceedings.   

The script by Aaron Guzikowski made big waves when it first arrived in Hollywood in 2009, attracting the attention of both Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale.  They obviously eventually moved on (though Christian Bale now has his own revenge movie brewing), though Guzikowski did in time write CONTRABAND for Wahlberg.  Denis Villeneuve, Canadian director the Oscar-nominated INCENDIES, will direct.

Here are some old-school tools of the carpentry trade.  Ow.