The former Batman depicter is set to portray a real-life preacher, who ended in jail for smuggling drugs, in an upcoming movie 'The Church of Living Dangerously'.
- August 25, 2021
AceShowbiz - Christian Bale is set to play a drug-smuggling preacher in "The Church of Living Dangerously".
According to Deadline, New Regency acquired the rights to David Kushner's Vanity Fair article, which profiles John Lee Bishop - a pastor who brought a tiger onto his stage in a former K-Mart superstore - and wound up a drug runner.
As well as starring in the flick, "The Dark Knight" star is also producing.
"The Big Short" scribe Charles Randolph is penning the script while Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Eric Robinson of The Gotham Group are also listed as producers.
As part of the contract, New Regency has landed life rights to Bishop and his son, David.
Bishop was caught having an affair with a church employee and was addicted to painkillers and booze.
As per Deadline, "His son developed a meth and heroin habit, and the preacher found a perplexing method of intervention. Determined not to fail his son, Bishop insisted on taking the drugs with the youth, to understand their power over him. That led to Bishop's smuggling drugs for a Mexican cartel. Caught at the Mexican border after 20 runs, Bishop was convicted and sentenced to five years behind bars. Ultimately, it was David who pulled him out of his tailspin."
Christian Bale was last seen on the big screen in 2019's true-story movie "Ford v Ferrari", playing car racing engineer and driver Ken Miles.
He will next appear as Gorr the God Butcher in the upcoming Marvel flick "Thor: Love and Thunder".
He is also cast in an untitled David O. Russell project with Margot Robbie, Robert Downey Jr., Zoe Saldana, Chris Rock, John David Washington, and Rami Malek.
