Variety reports that writer/director Oliver Stone is eyeing Green Lantern and “Gossip Girl” star Blake Lively for the female lead in Savages.
In the Universal release, based on a book by Don Winslow, two friends from Laguna Beach share the same girlfriend and a thriving business growing and distributing the best-quality pot on the planet. When they resist being muscled by a Mexican drug cartel, the girl is kidnapped and the ransom is every cent they’ve made for the last five years. They agree to pay but hatch an alternate plan to get her back, get revenge, and then get lost.
Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch are in talks to play the two friends, while Lively would play Ophelia, the kidnapped girl. Benicio del Toro is negotiating to play one of the cartel enforcers. Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman have also been eyed for roles.
According to the trade, Lively had been considering taking on the role of Glinda, the Good Witch of the East, in Sam Raimi’s Oz, the Great and Powerful for Disney, but the shooting schedules may make doing both impossible.
