Aaron Taylor-Johnson Joins ‘The Fall Guy’

Taylor-Johnson boards director David Leitch’s latest, while Florence Pugh is starring in Alexander Skarsgård’s directorial debut.

(L to R) Bryan Tyree Henry and Aaron Taylor-Johnson star in Sony's 'Bullet Train.' Photo: Scott Garfield.

Now that the pieces have fallen into place (on a crash pad, we hope), director David Leitch and star Ryan Gosling are pushing their movie adaptation of ‘The Fall Guy’ into top gear.

Emily Blunt joined the cast recently, and the latest addition is Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Originally created by prolific TV producer Glen A. Larson (whose prolific TV production factory also cranked out shows such as ‘Buck Rogers’, ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and ‘Knight Rider’), ‘The Fall Guy’ ran between 1981 and 1986, and starred Lee Majors as Colt Seavers.

When his movie work starts to dry up, Seavers pivots to become a bounty hunter, using all the know-how he’s acquired to craft film action to track down and defeat swindlers, thieves, bikers, conmen, fugitives, and corrupt officials using his fists and his vehicle skills.

Majors starred alongside Douglas Barr and Heather Thomas as Colt’s colleagues Howie Munson and Jody Banks, who helped him out on his missions. Though the show was often a giant slab of ‘80s cheese TV, the concept clearly has legs.

(L to R) Heather Thomas and Lee Majors in 'The Fall Guy.' Photo courtesy of IMDB.

‘Terminator Salvation’ director McG had Dwayne Johnson attached to star back in 2013, with a script from Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller.

Word of Leitch and Gosling’s take first surfaced in 2020, then referred to as ‘Unknown Stuntman Movie’ and backing via Universal.

With The Hollywood Reporter’s story on Taylor-Johnson’s casting comes fresh information as to the storyline for this one, which looks to be largely jettisoning the side-hustle part of the original show.

Gosling is playing battered and past-his-prime stuntman who finds himself back on a movie with the star he worked with long ago and who replaced him. The problem, however, is that the star is now missing…

Taylor-Johnson will be the movie star that Gosling is doubling, while Blunt is a prosthetic makeup artist that has a romantic past with our hero.

The new film will see Leitch – a former expert stuntman himself, who has used that experience in his action-packed directorial career – reunite with Taylor-Johnson after the latter played opinionated assassin Tangerine in ‘Bullet Train’.

With a script from ‘Iron Man 3’s Drew Pearce and cameras rolling in Australia, ‘The Fall Guy’ is taking aim at a March 1st, 2024, release.

(L to R) Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brad Pitt in Sony Pictures' 'Bullet Train.'

In other casting news, the ever-busy Florence Pugh has another acting job. And it’s an intriguing one – as according to Deadline, the new movie is Alexander Skarsgård’s directorial debut ‘The Pack.’

Rose Gilroy, who wrote ‘Project Artemis’, which Greg Berlanti now making starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum, also scripted this new psychological thriller.

Skarsgård will kick off shooting in March, and the story follows a group of documentarians who brave the remote wilderness of Alaska in an effort to save a nearly extinct species of wolves.

When the crew is brought back together at a prestigious awards ceremony, tensions flare as a deadly truth threatens to unravel their work. This team lived through the harsh elements of the wild but will a secret they share survive the night?

Skarsgård will star alongside Pugh as well as directing.