Matt Damon is in talks to star in the Dartmoor story We Bought a Zoo – how long before they change the title to Bourne Free… geddit? Nevermind.
Cameron Crowe is set to direct the film that is based on Ben Mee’s memoir of his time taking over the Dartmoor Zoo. Ben Stiller had been linked to the role, but it looks like Matt is heading down the real-life character route after his depiction of Francois Pienaar in Invictus.
Ben, who was a Guardian columnist, got his hands on a 12-bedroom mansion on Dartmoor for his wife, two children, brother and 76-year-old mother. And a zoo – the 30-acre Dartmoor Wildlife Park. As the animals in the zoo improve and the running of the zoo gets smoother, Mee’s wife is diagnosed with terminal cancer and becomes increasingly ill.
Aline Brosh McKenna of The Devil Wears Prada adapted the script, and Cameron has been having a little tinker himself.
Meanwhile, here’s Ben himself talking about how he happened to own a zoo.
(image: Matt Damon leaving the press conference of “The good shepherd”, Hyatt Hotel, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin by Siebbi, used under a Creative Commons licence)
