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Paramount has set "We Own the Night" helmer James Gray to direct "The Lost City of Z." Gray will adapt the David Grann book for Brad Pitt to star in as British soldier and spy Percy Fawcett.

The nonfiction book by Grann, a staffer at the New Yorker, will be published in April by Doubleday. Paramount acquired it earlier this year for Pitt to produce through his Par-based Plan B banner (Daily Variety, April 1).

Fawcett left Victorian society to explore in the Amazon, and he became obsessed by the idea of an advanced civilization he called Z, which he believed existed in the depths of the jungle. Along with his son, Fawcett headed into the jungle in 1925 in search of Z and was never seen again.

"This is a terrific opportunity to do something entirely different for me," Gray said. "It is a story that will be told with an epic scale, with a main character who is larger than life."

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“’The Lost City of Z’ looks like it will happen,” Gray said with his casual cautiousness. “That's got Benedict Cumberbatch [in the lead] who's perfectly cast. I've raised the money for that, and I may go do that in January.” (Though last night at BAMcinematek, during a Q&A which yours truly moderated, Gray said September). Co-starring Robert Pattinson, who Gray confirmed is still attached and recently also said the film would likely shoot in Jan, “The Lost City Of Z” is set in 1925 and centers on a legendary British explorer who ventured into the Amazon jungle in search of a fabled civilization and never again returned.

Gray said the shooting locations will likely be the U.K., and for the jungle sequences, Colombia. What kind of movie should we expect? Last we spoke Gray teased the movie as “epic and hallucinogenic.”

“People have asked me about ‘Apocalypse Now’ and those kinds of movies,” he admitted about reference points for the movie. “Of course those are all great and they’re a huge inspiration and so is [David] Lean. But I’m really trying, the older I get to forget the kind of approach which I've had. On the last two movies I've watched far fewer movies beforehand and I'm trying to come at the pieces as organically as I can and not think of other movies. Now of course unconsciously that shit's always going to come out, I'm always going to rip off something.”

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Charlie Hunnam will star opposite Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller in The Lost City of Z, Plan B’s adaptation of the book by David Grann.

MICA Entertainment has come on board to finance the drama, which James Gray is directing. Sierra / Affinity is continuing international sales of the title at this year’s European Film Market.

Hunnam is replacing Benedict Cumberbatch, who was previously set to star but is now due to topline Marvel’s Doctor Strange movie, among other projects.

In the true-life drama, Hunnam will portray British explorer Col. Percival Fawcett, who disappeared in 1925 while searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon.

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