Jeff Bridges In Talks For 'R.I.P.D.'

RED director Robert Schwentke is still prepping R.I.P.D., the film that will feature Ryan Reynolds as an undead police officer, based on Peter Lenkov's comic of the same name. There was a point where Zach Galifianakis was possibly going to feature as the other major cop character, but scheduling uncertainty led to him bailing on the project.

Now R.I.P.D. is potentially going to appeal to a slightly different audience, as Jeff Bridges is in talks to play that role, "a gunslinger who has been dead for hundreds of years," instead.

Deadline has the news, and I like it. Zach Galifianakis would have been good, but he and Ryan Reynolds together might have been a bit much to handle. Jeff Bridges will be able to bring a much more centered level of insanity to the proceedings. Be ready to start seeing photoshopped images of an undead Rooster Cogburn if he does sign on. (I'd make that myself, but there's far too much news to cover right now.)

If you're not up to speed with R.I.P.D., producer Neal Moritz described it thus last year:

It's about two cops, one recently dead and a gunslinger who's been dead for hundreds of years who work on the Rest in Peace department – which is the police department of the dead. And they basically... it takes place on a normal day and it's about trying to keep the dead quiet.

And here's the official synopsis of the comic:

Welcome to the Rest In Peace Department — the devoted, yet dead, officers of divine law enforcement "patrolling the deadbeat...reporting to one boss." Yep — THAT boss. Nick Cruz was murdered by an unknown assailent, at the height of his personal and professional life. Now he's traded a hundred years of service to the R.I.P.D. in exchange for a shot at finding who killed him. Unfortunately his search will take him to Hell and back — literally!