Academy award-winning actor Christian Bale has reportedly (via Deadline) been roped in to star in ‘The Church of Living Dangerously’, a Vanity Fair article by David Kushner that was published in the year 2019. The film’s script would be penned by Charles Randolph (The Big Short, The Life of David Gale) and besides starring, Christian Bale would additionally act as the film’s producer.
In the film, Christian Bale is said to portray the role of John Lee Bishop who bore the brunt of his uncle’s idea of amusement which made him unwillingly fight other kids during his childhood. As per the Vanity Fair article, he became a pastor of The Living Hope Church. Owing to his gifted showmanship, Bishop became affluent but couldn’t handle his success well, and as a result, he eventually became a painkiller and alcohol addict.
Things went further downhill for him when he innovatively ‘intervened’ in his son’s meth and heroin addiction. This paved way for his role as a drug peddler for a Mexican cartel. Considering the vicissitudes of Bishop’s character in the said article, the film adaptation seems to have immense scope for a gifted performer like Christian Bale to showcase his acting chops in an interesting and intense role. And who knows, it could perhaps even be Bale’s gateway to his second Oscar.
Christian Bale has had a prolific career, to say the least. Right from when he was cast as a child actor in Steven Spielberg ‘s ‘Empire of the Sun’ to gaining more concrete recognition in ‘American Psycho’ to his brilliant portrayal in psychological thriller ‘The Machinist’ to starring in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy. His acting credits also include David O. Russel’s ‘American Hustle’ and James Mangold’s car racing drama ‘Ford vs Ferrari’ (co-starring Matt Damon).
Bale would next be seen in another of Russel’s untitled directorial film (co-starring Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Michael Shannon, and Timothy Olyphant amongst others) besides also featuring as Gorr the God Butcher in Taika Waititi’s ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ (co-starring Chris Hemsworth).