Written by Sarah

Let’s get this out of the way first. Ryan Gosling is HOT. He’s the only member of my Lifetime Five (too good for the Freebie Five). He’s the one actor I want to know nothing about because Ryan Gosling is perfect and I don’t want to ruin that impression in my mind. I am not a Gosling Notebook fan--I’ve never seen The Notebook all the way through, I’ve never seen the entire “tub scene” and while I have seen the DVD extras, I’ve yet to see any kissy scenes except the one they showed at the MTV Movie Awards. My favorite Gosling movie is Lars and the Real Girl.

Gosling is a choosy worker. Just shy of thirty, he is returning after a two year absence from film with the much-admired Blue Valentine (already there’s talk of a second Oscar nod) and next year he has a supporting role in a Steve Carell comedy (the asininely titled Crazy, Stupid, Love). For one who works so little compared to his peers, he is consistently ranked at the top of the heap among under-thirty actors, so when a project of his is casting, it becomes a sport to guess his co-stars. Especially when that project is a mainstream movie--Gosling hasn’t done the mainstream since Fracture in 2007, and chances are, with Crazy, Stupid, Love in 2011, he won’t be in the mainstream again for a while after 2012.

What’s in 2012? A car chase flick called Drive.

You didn’t think Gosling was getting buff just to tease us, did you? Taking over for Hugh Jackman, Gosling is “Driver”, the unnamed stuntman who operates as a getaway driver at night. It’s adapted from James Sallis’s book of the same name by Hossein Amini and will be directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. It’s all muscle cars and cops and robbers--old school Steve McQueen stuff. Gosling’s amped-up physique suddenly makes more sense, no?

A report recently emerged that Bryan Cranston was in talks for a role in Drive, as was…Carey Mulligan. That name was a surprise. Of all the young actresses to play the ex-con’s girlfriend who escapes a botched heist with “Driver”, Mulligan was not on my radar. She just seems too elfin. Too shy and charming and English to be a shady type. Can Carey Mulligan be a tough chick?

Sony Pictures certainly thought so. Mulligan was on the short list of names Sony put forward for Lisbeth Salander. Now, barely a week after David Fincher got his way and cast the largely unknown Rooney Mara as Lisbeth, Mulligan is suddenly signing up to be Drive’s tough chick. It seems Mulligan is interested in playing a certain type of character, which given my previous thoughts on her ability to be tough, is probably not a bad idea. The timing irks a little, though. So close to losing Lisbeth, this looks a bit like Mulligan’s second-best. I hate to think that Mulligan is taking working with Ryan Gosling for granted. Nobody puts The Gos in the corner.

(Note from Lainey – but what if Shia gets put in the corner after Carey gets a taste of Gosling’s quiver? Am told, on set, he’s irresistible. And both he and Carey will be at TIFF in September.)


Written by Sarah
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Photos from Wenn.com and Bauergriffinonline.com