Philip Seymour Hoffman has reportedly left Child 44, the film adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s novel. The Oscar winner will be replaced by Black Swan actor Vincent Cassel.
Deadline confirmed the news on Wednesday. Hoffman, who joined the film in June, was slated to join an all-star cast that already included Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman and Joel Kinnaman. Those four actors remain on the project, which is being produced by Summit with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free and was written by Richard Price.
The story is set in Stalinist Russia and centers on a military officer looking into child murders in the 1960s. Hardy plays the protagonist, Leo Stepanovich Demidov. Daniel Espinoza (Safe House) is directing.
Earlier this week, Cassel also landed a role in Partisan, reports ScreenDaily. The French actor will star in Ariel Kleiman’s directorial debut, which will shoot in Australia.
Cassel was last seen in Danny Boyle’s Trance and is working on a new French version of Beauty and the Beast.
There is no word on why Hoffman dropped out of Child 44. He just filmed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and will star in Lionsgate’s two-part finale to the Hunger Games trilogy.
image: Wikimedia Commons
