Ryan Reynolds will star in the Jon Favreau-directed Battle For Bonneville – an upcoming film about racing brothers Art and Walt Arfons – assuming New Regency’s final negotiations are successful.
Deadline hints that Favreau will likely precede Battle For Bonneville with Jersey Boys, which has a release date of December 2013, pushing Battle into 2014 at the earliest. As for Reynolds, the actor has a pretty full slate of big-budget films coming up, including Highlander and Deadpool.
The film is based on the true story of the legendary drag-racing half-brothers, who have a complicated history. Here’s an excerpt from Hemming Muscle Machines via /Film, which describes their relationship:
Walt and Art Arfons were, at one point, closer than just family. Though technically half-brothers and far apart in age–Walt was born in 1920, while Art came along six years later–both served in the Navy during World War II and both became handy with a wrench while working in Art’s father’s feed mill in Akron, Ohio. In their off hours, the brothers aimed their mechanical talents toward pursuits including a homebuilt airplane and fixing motorcycles. It wasn’t until 1952, when they went to take the airplane for a spin and found the airport’s access road blocked off by an organized drag race, that the two decided to build a race car.
Surely, Reynolds will be playing either Art or Walt, but the information has yet to be disclosed, as very few details on Battle For Bonneville are known at this point. We do know that Bourne Legacy co-writer Dan Gilroy wrote the script, and details about the film will be in hot pursuit as negotiations finalize.
What do you think about Battle for Bonneville? Would you watch a Ryan Reynolds drag-racing movie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.