Javier Bardem Offered Villainous Blackbeard Role In Peter Pan Origin Movie

Briefly: Warner Bros. has Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna) in talks to direct the studio's new Peter Pan origin story. While the idea of a modern, gritty Peter Pan origin story isn't the most appealing thing (Warners has been said to want to "give Pan the Batman Begins treatment") the idea of Joe Wright directing goes a long way towards redeeming it. (Or at least towards spit-shining the pitch.)

Now Deadline says that WB has offered the prime villain role to Javier Bardem. He would play Blackbeard, the "captain of the bad guys" that are troubling Neverland, and against whom Peter leads a rebellion. So, two questions. Can he a) take the job and b) keep his hair from The Counselor?

Deadline is also calling this one Pan, which was the title of a Sony project that was in development a couple years ago. At one point there were three Peter Pan stories in development at different studios — this one at WB, the one once called Pan at Sony, and Peter and the Starcatchers at Disney — which is already pretty confusing. We don't know which one will shoot first, but at this point this is the one that has the most heat. Gary Ross was going to make Peter and the Starcatchers at one point, but has diverted to a pair of projects with Jennifer Lawrence instead.