Chris Pratt In ‘Passengers’ Talks At Sony

Chris Pratt is in talks to star in Passengers, and the studio wants Jennifer Lawrence to pair with him. Our sister publication Variety revealed Lawrence, thought I’m told this is more a wish than reality at this point. This is the Jon Spaihts-scripted science fiction love story that will be directed by The Imitation Game‘s Morten Tyldum. Sony Pictures has been courting Pratt for weeks, and now they are in the throes of making a deal.

This is a big sci-fi love story, set in deep space, and it’s a major studio priority being overseen by production president Michael De Luca and produced by Original Films’ Neal Moritz and Ori Marmur and Michael Maher for Start Media and Stephen Hamel of Company Films.

Sony bought this project late last year while it engaged in all that hacking turmoil, and it didn’t take long for it to bear fruit. Passengers takes place on a spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant colony planet and has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, a single passenger is awakened 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger, marking the beginning of what becomes a unique love story.

Passengers once had Keanu Reeves and Rachel McAdams attached along with Game Of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire helmer Brian Kirk. Before that, Reese Witherspoon had been expected to play the female lead. If Lawrence materializes, it’s certainly a formidable package.