EXCLUSIVE: I’m hearing that Margin Call and A Most Violent Year helmer JC Chandor is in early discussions to direct Triple Frontier, that hot-button drama for Paramount Pictures that grew quiet when Zero Dark Thirty helmer Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal stepped away to focus on the movie about Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who left a base in Afghanistan and was captured, held for five years by the Taliban until he was exchanged for five high-level Taliban fighters.

Last we checked on Triple Frontier, both Tom Hanks and Will Smith were circling, and that’s believed to still be the case. The plot has been closely guarded on this one but the film, also known as Sleeping Dogs, is set in the organized crime haven that exists in the border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. It has five main roles. Charles Roven is producing through his Atlas Entertainment.

Given the frivolity we are seeing in the silly summer season, both Triple Frontier and the Bergdahl films sound worthy and hats off to the filmmakers for continuing to press forward when it is such an uphill battle. Chandor, who has been looking for a picture after exiting Lionsgate’s Deepwater Horizon, is repped by CAA.

Johnny Depp Mulling Offer for Crime Drama 'Triple Frontier'

It’s an actor’s merry-go-round on Paramount’s Triple Frontier, the studio’s epic drug cartel project.

The long-in-the works project just made an offer to Johnny Depp for one of the four lead roles after losing Will Smith. Smith was previously attached but fell out due to commitments to his New Line drama, Collateral Beauty.

Tom Hanks remains attached but his involvement is seen as shaky at this stage.

J.C. Chandor is in the director’s chair for the project, which takes its name from the border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, one of the world’s largest havens for organized crime.

The project has been in the works since at least 2009 and was once a vehicle for Kathryn Bigelow.

Atlas Entertainment is producing.

It is unclear whether Depp, last seen in Black Mass, will enter negotiations for the part. Paramount had no comment on the casting developments.

Channing Tatum & Tom Hardy Circling ‘Triple Frontier’

EXCLUSIVE: Conversations are ongoing with Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy for Paramount’s Triple Frontier, the Mark Boal-scripted thriller set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge.

Mahershala Ali is in negotiations to join the cast of Paramount Pictures’ Triple Frontier, the thriller which will be directed by JC Chandor from a script by Mark Boal. We also hear that Tom Hardy’s deal to also star in the picture closed; he and Channing Tatum entered into talks on it last month, as Deadline reported exclusively. Tatum’s deal is all but closed.

Triple Frontier is set in the dangerous border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge. The film is being produced by Charles Roven and Alex Gartner via Atlas Entertainment.

I have been hearing that things have been going sideways the past few days on Paramount’s Triple Frontier, and now I’ve confirmed that Paramount has dropped out of the drama that J.C. Chandor was supposed to start production on next month. Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy also are officially out.

Given how hard it is to mount adult-themed feature films in this marketplace, this is terrible news. Tatum and Hardy have been set for some time, and they recently added Oscar winning Moonlight star Mahershala Ali and Adria Arjona for the Mark Boal-scripted thriller set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge. This is the film that Katherine Bigelow once planned to direct, and which at one time Tom Hanks and Will Smith and Johnny Depp circled, so it has its fans. The pic is being produced by Charles Roven and Alex Gartner.

I had heard earlier that Chandor turned in a rewrite that Tatum and Hardy didn’t love, and they were teetering. Sources said that for Paramount, this project was being done on a tight schedule and for a price, and that once creative differences imperiled that goal and requests were made for more extensive changes — I’ve heard those requests came from Hardy — the studio today declined to move forward. There’s also the added element that the studio has had a changeover at the top, and this one was championed by Brad Grey, who’s not there anymore. These kinds of things happen. The filmmaker will regroup and hopefully re-mount it with a different cast, at a later time. Will tell you more when I know it.

There might be hope for Triple Frontier, the J.C. Chandor-directed, Charles Roven-produced drama that was four weeks from a production start when Paramount dropped out along with Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy. Since Deadline revealed all this, conversations have been ongoing with several suitors, but they look most promising right now with Netflix. If the streaming service boards, it would offer those lead roles to Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck to join Mahershala Ali in the film.

Nothing’s set, but that scenario potentially would put the reigning Best Actor Oscar winner (Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea) in the same movie with the Best Supporting Actor winner (Ali for Moonlight). Beyond all this, the project would have to formally extricate from Paramount and start production later in the year.

The Mark Boal-scripted thriller is set in the notorious border zone with Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge. The script has long been catnip for filmmakers and talent; Katherine Bigelow once planned to direct, and Tom Hanks, Will Smith and Johnny Depp circled before Tatum and Hardy. Roven and Alex Gartner are producing.

Netflix stepping up here would be a jump shot at the buzzer, but this is the kind of high-profile feature the streaming service is looking for under incoming features head Scott Stuber. Stay tuned.

The JC Chandor-directed thriller Triple Frontier has regained its footing at Netflix for a potential August production start. Mark Wahlberg is now in talks to replace Ben Affleck, who dropped out last week. The film will shoot in Hawaii and Colombia and will star Sons of Anarchy‘s Charlie Hunnam, Mudbound‘s Garrett Hedlund and Pedro Pascal, coming off Game of Thrones and Narcos. Wahlberg is coming off Transformers: The Last Knight. Still in the mix is Adria Arjona, who has been attached right along.

This last–minute activity is just part and parcel of the resilience this film has shown. Triple Frontier was a go at Paramount but hit the rocks when lead actors Tom Hardy and Channing Tatum dropped out over creative differences, weeks before the start of production. That, a $70 million price tag and the fact the studio was going through a regime change with the exit of the late Brad Grey (who championed the project), prompted Paramount to put the film into turnaround. Deadline revealed this implosion on April 12, and then on May 1 revealed that Netflix was pursuing the picture along with other suitors, with Affleck and his Oscar-winning brother Casey courted. The elder Affleck was ready to go but decided to take a break to focus on his health and family. Incoming Netflix feature film head Atlas producers Charles Roven and Alex Gartner kept the fires stoked, and now they have pulled off a rarity: saving a project that seemed in grave danger of flatlining.

Originally written by Mark Boal with a rewrite by Chandor, Triple Frontier is a thriller set in the notorious border zone between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge. This is a film that Katherine Bigelow once planned to direct, and which at one time Tom Hanks and Will Smith and Johnny Depp circled, so it has always had its fans.

Even though it needs a new title, the drama known as Triple Frontier finally gets underway next week at Netflix. Perhaps the most apt title would be The Movie That Refused to Die. Ben Affleck is back, heading the ensemble, along with Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Pedro Pascal, Garrett Hedlund and Adria Arjona.

The J.C. Chandor-directed, Charles Roven-, Alex Gartner- and Andy Horwitz-produced drama is a study in how a worthy script can stay alive, despite setbacks that often are fatal. We last wrote about this one when the picture fell apart after Affleck withdrew for personal reasons as he dealt with sobriety issues. This was when he was going to star with brother Casey Affleck and Mahershala Ali, right after those two were coming off their Oscar-winning performances in Manchester By the Sea and Moonlight, respectively.

Netflix film head Scott Stuber provided a lifeline, and has worked ever since with Roven and his Atlas Entertainment to keep this one from dying. The one unresolved issue now is title; the thriller that Mark Boal scripted years ago for his The Hurt Locker partner Kathryn Bigelow to direct was called Triple Frontier because of its setting in the notorious border zone with Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, where the Iguazu and Parana rivers converge. That area is no longer considered as dangerous as it was; tourists go there now. Chandor has worked on the script and the location still borders Brazil. It will shoot in Oahu as well as in Colombia and California. Thomas Hayslip, Neal Dodson and Anna Gerb are executive producing.

The script has long been catnip for filmmakers and talent; in addition to Bigelow, Tom Hanks, Will Smith and Johnny Depp circled to star before Tatum and Hardy committed and exited. Chandor wrote the latest draft of the script.