It seems somewhat strange that two of the UK’s hottest acting imports have never actually worked together, but that’s about to change when it comes to Oscar-winning doc director James Marsh’s latest narrative project, now titled Hold On To Me. The film, formerly known as Nancy and Danny, has had Carey Mulligan attached for months, but Deadline Hollywood now reports that Robert Pattinson has signed on to co-star. So what sort of hijinks are these two little crumpets going to get up to with each other?
Oh, bad ones. Very bad ones indeed.
Penned by Brad Ingelsby (who also wrote Scott Cooper’s upcoming Out of the Furnace), the film is “based on a true story about a femme fatale who with her boyfriend kidnaps and ransoms the town’s richest man. They bury him in a box and things go horribly awry.” Naughty Mulligan! And while it would certainly seem as if Pattinson would be playing that boyfriend role, the outlet notes that instead he is set to play “the flashy supporting role of the woman’s life love, Jimmy, who isn’t involved in the crime.” While we’re not sure exactly what a “life love” is, it’s nice to know that old Pattycakes isn’t going to kidnap or kill anyone.
Mulligan joined the film back in August when all we knew was that the project was about “a scheming woman who comes back to her hometown after her plans to make it in the big city fail. Once back, she wastes no time scheming to land a high school crush, using people as pawns, and involving herself in get rich quick schemes that go terribly wrong.” You know what can go wrong really quickly? Kidnapping.
While we don’t know for sure just which “true story” the film is based on, over at ComingSoon, they’re guessing that it might be the Samuel Bronfman II case from 1975, when the son of the (very wealthy) Seagram Company president was taken, with his abductors first asking for a giant $4.6m ransom. That case, however, had its own little twist, and doesn’t seem like a likely pick to inspire this film, at least from what we’ve heard about it so far. If we’re wrong, though, then Hold On To Me will pack one heck of a surprise.