Michael Fassbender Exits Natalie Portman's 'Jane Got a Gun' (Exclusive)

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From left: Michael Fassbender, Jude Law and Joel Edgerton

Jane Got a Gun has been hit by a round of musical chairs.

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Michael Fassbender, who was to have played the male lead in the Natalie Portman-led Western, has exited the movie, while Joel Edgerton, who was on board to play the villain, will step into the hero role.

Jude Law, in the meantime, has signed on for the villain, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Gun centers on a woman whose outlaw husband returns home riddled with bullet wounds and barely alive. When her husband’s gang eventually tracks him down to finish the job, she is forced to reach out to an ex-lover and ask if he will help defend her farm.

Edgerton will now play the ex-lover while Law will be the leader of the gang that lays siege to the homestead.

The moves come a couple weeks before the start of shooting in New Mexico. Sources say the actor rotation came about due to Fassbender's schedule conflict with his upcoming shoot in Montreal for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Gun has been pushed back several times and now is scheduled to begin filming in April.

Scott Steindorff, Aleen Keshishian and Terry Dougas are producing. Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin) is directing.

Edgerton, who next appears in the all-star adaptation of The Great Gatsby, is repped by CAA, Shanahan Management and Hirsch Wallerstein

Law is coming off a starring turn in Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects and just wrapped shooting Wes Anderson’s latest, the ensemble comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel. He is repped by WME, LBI Entertainment and Jackoway Tyerman.

Email: Borys.Kit@thr.com

Twitter: @Borys_Kit