After becoming Disney’s belle of the box office ball this March with her enchanting performance in Cinderella, Lily James is in talks to join The Fault in Our Stars actor Ansel Elgort for Baby Driver, Edgar Wright’s first original film since The World’s End.
Wright will write and direct the pic about a getaway driver (Elgort) who jams out to his own personal soundtrack during his heists and attributes his success entirely to the music. James is circling the role of his love interest, a diner waitress who gets caught up in the driver’s dangerous lifestyle. Some new plot details have come out about the pic as well, courtesy of THR:
Ansel Elgort is set to star as a young mute man who has an ear condition that forces him to constantly listen to music in order to drown out the constant ringing in his ears. His character is a driver for a group of bank robbers who goes on the run after a heist goes bad.
One high point of Wright’s movies has always been their soundtracks, but Baby Driver seems like it’s going to live and die on what Wright selects, much more than any other project I’ve seen in recent years. Elgort is a curious choice for the director, but now is definitely not the time to stop trusting Wright. He’s delivered some of the best cult films of this century, with Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World all on his resume, and now that he’s out of Ant-Man and back to making original movies, the potential for Baby Driver seems sky-high.
James’ addition is certainly another plus, given what a breathtaking big screen arrival she had in Cinderella. She and Elgort are still the only two names associated with the project, though this is a Wright joint, so it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see Nick Frost and Simon Pegg pop up somewhere (hopefully as nasty bank robbers). Fingers crossed on that count.
We’ll keep you posted with more on Baby Driver as it’s available. Shooting is set to start in the fall in New Orleans.