Oliver Stone Has Met With Leonardo DiCaprio, Aaron Johnson, Tom Hardy, James Franco & Garrett Hedlund For Two Male Lead Roles; Benicio Del Toro Courted For Role Of Cartel Enforcer

There is nothing we like better than young actresses making smart, interesting choices and “Winter’s Bone” breakout star and Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence continues to diversify her resumé. She’s got a starring role in the upcoming “X-Men: First Class” (whose solid trailer just dropped) and now she’s made a nice little gear change into a project with great potential.

Deadline reports that Lawrence is in talks to star in “Savages,” a drug cartel thriller to be directed by Oliver Stone. First revealed the last summer, the project is based on Don Winslow‘s book about “two pals from Laguna Beach who share the same girlfriend and a thriving business growing and distributing the best-quality pot on the planet. When they resist being muscled by a Mexican drug cartel, the girl is kidnapped and the ransom is every cent they’ve made for the last five years. They agree to pay but hatch an alternate plan to get her back, get revenge, and then get lost.” Lawrence, will play the girl in the middle O, while the two pals—Ben and Chon—have seen some big names in the mix. Oliver Stone has apparently met with Leonardo DiCaprio, Aaron Johnson, Tom Hardy, James Franco and Garrett Hedlund about the roles and Benicio Del Toro is being sought to play an enforcer for the Mexican drug cartel.

This sounds like something much more lean and mean from Stone than we’re used to, and the source material is from a writer who has gained attention of prominent helmer’s in the past. Winslow wrote “The Winter of Frankie Machine,” a book that once had Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann interested in directing at various points. Definitely seems like some wickedly fun stuff and if Stone can attract some of those top tier names, we reckon it’s his most interesting project in years.