Idris Elba will have maybe his busiest year, with 4 high-profile films scheduled to be released in 2017, in which he either stars or plays a supporting role: “The Dark Tower” (Sony), “Thor: Ragnarok” (Disney/Marvel), “Molly’s Game” (Entertainment One) and the romantic drama “The Mountain Between Us” for Twentieth Century Fox and producer Chernin Entertainment – a project that’s long been in development that was original set to star Charlie Hunnam and Rosamund Pike. Both were eventually replaced by Elba and Kate Winslet.
An adaptation of the best-selling novel by Charles Martin, the story centers on a man and woman, survivors of a plane crash in the wilderness, who fall in love.
Here’s a summary of the story: “On a stormy winter night, two strangers wait for a flight at the Salt Lake City airport. Ashley Knox is an attractive, successful writer, who is flying East for her much anticipated wedding. Dr. Ben Payne has just wrapped up a medical conference and is also eager to return home to Jacksonville, FL for a slate of surgeries he has scheduled for the following day. When the last outgoing flight is canceled due to a broken de-icer and a forthcoming storm, Ben finds a charter plane that can take him around the storm and drop him in Denver to catch a connection. And when the pilot says the single engine prop plane can fit one more, Ben offers the seat to Ashley, knowing that she needs to get back just as urgently. And then the unthinkable happens. The pilot has a heart attack mid-flight and the plane crashes into the High Uintas Wilderness–one of the largest stretches of harsh and remote land in the United States. Ben, who has broken ribs and Ashley, who suffers a terrible leg fracture, along with the pilot’s dog, are faced with an incredibly harrowing battle to survive. As the days on the freezing mountains become weeks, their survival becomes increasingly perilous. How will they make it out of the wilderness and if they do, how will this experience change them forever?”
Of course Elba plays Dr. Ben Payne and Winslet is Ashley Knox.
The film is being directed by Hany Abu-Assad from a script that was initially adapted by Mills Goodloe and Scott Frank. Chris Weitz was tapped for a rewrite.
Originally set for an October 20th, 2017 release, Fox has moved up the date by 2 weeks to October 6; and it’ll be a wide opening. That weekend, it’ll face tough competition from “Blade Runner 2049” which also opens wide, as well as a Lionsgate animated feature titled “My Little Pony.” But when you take a look at what it would have been up against on its previous October 20 date (“Geostorm,” “The Snowman,” “Tyler Perry’s Boo 2! A Madea Halloween,” “Same Kind of Different as Me,” “Granite Mountain Hotshots,” and “War with Grandpa” every single one of them also opening wide), you’d understand why Fox moved it. The October 6 weekend is much lighter, although “Blade Runner 2049” is almost certainly going to take that weekend’s box office top spot by a potentially wide margin (unless early reviews are dismal). But “Mountain” could serve as smart counter-programming on Fox’s part.
It’s been on the S&A 2018 Oscar predictions list since the start of the year.
A previously released first trailer for “The Mountain Between Us” is embedded below, followed by a set of official first-look photos from the film:
