Christian Bale to lead/produce 'The Church of the Living Dangerously'
New Regency has bought the film rights to David Kushner's famous 2019 article for Vanity Fair, titled The Church of the Living Dangerously. Christian Bale will be co-producing and starring in as the pastor who ended up smuggling drugs. Charles Randolph, of The Big Short-fame, has been entrusted with writing the script. Kushner and Randolph will be serving as executive producers, alongside Margaret Riley.
Deadline broke the news recently, stating Bale has a "potential starring role with meat on the bone." To give an insight, the article was about John Lee Bishop, a pastor with a troubled childhood, who becomes "one of the most successful pastors in America." However, when his son David became addicted to meth and heroin, he got involved but not in a usual way.
Kushner provided that Bishop wanted David "to know I loved him enough to jump into his life with him," so he started taking drugs with him. Then, interestingly, Papa John, as he was fondly called, became a drug runner for a Mexican cartel. Bishop was finally caught at the Mexican border after 20 runs and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Obviously, the life of the pastor has enough material to boost a dynamic feature. New Regency has, as per Deadline, also acquired the life rights to Bishop and David, in addition to the article. Aside from Bale and the production house behind hits like The Spiderwick Chronicles and Stargirl, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Eric Robinson of The Gotham Group will also be producing.
Coming to Bale, The Dark Knight actor has recently finished shooting for David O Russell's untitled film, which is also being backed by New Regency. He is also going bald for the Marvel venture Thor: Love and Thunder. Playing supervillain Gorr the God Butcher, his look was leaked in April. Separately, he is set to star in and produce Netflix's The Pale Blue Eye.
