According to our Tinseltown friend, Oscar-winner Nicolas Cage is mulling the other male lead opposite Chow Yun-Fat. Cage's role is described as that of an Irishman who works on the railroad alongside Chow Yun-Fat's immigrant protagonist. Cage starred in Woo's action flick Face/Off as well as in the upcoming WWII drama Windtalkers (currently scheduled for release on June 14, 2002).
Our contact raved about the latest draft of the screenplay and compared Men of Destiny to Lawrence of Arabia in terms of its epic scale. They also advised us that Face/Off scribes Mike Werb & Michael Colleary revised the original screenplay by Tom Vaughan, which was titled The Line when Propaganda Films purchased the spec script last May. Our pal also advised us that its possible that Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) may be brought onboard to polish the Werb-Colleary draft.
Production on Men of Destiny is expected to begin this fall.
