EXCLUSIVE: Rebecca Ferguson is in talks to star opposite Michael Fassbender in The Snowman for director Tomas Alfredson and Brit production powerhouse Working Title in association with Alfredson’s Another Park Film. The deal hasn’t closed just yet but there’s a desire from both sides to get this done in time to confirm a January start date.
Working Title’s dynamic duo Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner will produce along with Robyn Slovo and Piodor Gustafsson. Matthew Michael Carnahan penned the script. Martin Scorsese is exec producing alongside Nesbo and Niclas Salomonsson, who reps Nesbo. Working Title’s Liza Chasin and Amelia Granger will also exec produce. The film – and bestselling book series- revolves around idiosyncratic detective Harry Hole in the Oslo police department. This particular story has Hole investigating the murder of a woman whose scarf is found wrapped around a snowman.
Ferguson is having a breakthrough year thanks to an attention-grabbing turn in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation opposite Tom Cruise. With Stephen Frears’ much-anticipated Florence Foster Jenkins starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant in the pipelines as well as playing one of the leads in the buzzy adaptation of The Girl on a Train opposite Emily Blunt, Ferguson seemingly has the world at her feet as she plots her next moves. The actress brings a multi-faceted bag of tricks to her game, mixing an adeptness at action and muscular scenes with a deft comic touch as well as natural physical elegance.
Post-Snowman, there are a range of options opening up to her. She is eyeing the lead role in Guernsey (aka The Guernsey Literary Society and Potato Peel Pie Society) with respected Brit director Mike Newell attached. Blueprint Pictures and Mazur-Kaplan are producing with StudioCanal circling to potentially co-finance in some capacity. That project still has some way to go but Ferguson is a fan of both the role- which has attracted the attention of A-listers like Kate Winslet in the past- and, in particular, working with Newell.
The actress is also in the mix for the Prometheus sequel that Ridley Scott, buoyed by his critical and commercial success with The Martian, is prepping at Fox to go into production in the latter half of next year. No concrete talks have been held about that one yet but Deadline understands that the latest draft was delivered to Scott and Fox execs recently and it is, by all accounts, very strong with a peach of a major female role. Ferguson has a lot of fans at Fox, who had courted her to take the female lead in Gambit, only for the actress to go with The Girl on a Train instead.
And there’s the small matter of another Mission: Impossible. The most recent instalment has already grossed $680 million worldwide, making a sequel a priority for both Paramount and franchise player Tom Cruise. Ferguson’s return as the effortlessly kick-ass Ilsa would seem to be a no-brainer.
Ferguson is repped by Tavistock Wood Management in the UK, ICM Partners in the U.S. and Actors in Scandinavia in Sweden.
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.