Jude Law Dives In To ‘Black Sea’

Jude Law has stepped into the lead role as a submarine captain in Black Sea, the latest from director Kevin Macdonald, according to a Thursday report from Empire.

The website added that the film would be written by scribe Dennis Kelly for Focus Features, and that the plot would find Law’s captain unemployed after getting laid off by his salvage company.

To make ends meet, the captain takes a secretive job to seek out a sunken submarine at the bottom of the Black Sea. Along the way, he begins to suspect that whatever dangers await are nothing compared to the volatile crew of Russians and Americans on board his vessel.

Whatever’s going on with Law’s situation in the film, we’re sure it can’t be more tumultuous than the set of Jane Got a Gun, the project he left last month after signing on to the lead villain role almost as quickly.

Law’s reason for leaving the film, according to Deadline, was that he wanted to work with director Lynne Ramsay on the Natalie Portman vehicle, and Ramsay abruptly abandoned ship on the first day of filming.

(Director Gavin O’Connor has since taken the job.)

Hopefully, the Black Sea experience will come together more smoothly for Jude Law, who hasn’t had a big hit since Hugo and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, both in 2011.

He’s getting to work with a steady director in Kevin Macdonald, who cut his teeth on documentary films — in fact, he’s coming off 2012’s Marley for this one — before debuting The Last King of Scotland as his first feature length drama in 2006.

Next up, the director has Christmas in a Day, another documentary, and How I Live Now.

As for his new star, the 2013 slate includes Dom Hemingway and Side Effects. A release date for Black Sea is still way-out.

Are you a fan of Jude Law? Is Black Sea a nice consolation prize for losing him off Jane Got a Gun?