Hollywood Reporter tells us that Screen Gems is negotiation to hire Paul Bettany to play the title role in PRIEST, a Western-Horror film produced by Michael De Luca, Josh Donen, and Mitchell Peck. The film is to be directed by Scott Stewart, who directed Bettany in LEGION, a supernatural thriller about angels trying to wipe out humanity, which is set to be released next January by Screen Gems.
An adaptation of a TokyoPop comic book, “Priest” is set in a world ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampire and follows a warrior priest (Bettany) who turns against the church to track down a murderous band of vampires who have kidnapped his niece. Cory Goodman (“The Brood”) wrote the screenplay.
“I knew the moment I saw Stewart’s first cut of ‘Legion’ that Bettany was Priest and so I mentioned it to him immediately,” Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper said.