Variety reports that Javier Bardem is in negotiations with Columbia Pictures to star opposite Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love, which is scheduled for release sometime in 2011.
Bardem, you might remember, won the 2007 Best Supporting Actor Oscar when he starred in Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men. He played Anton Chigurh, the psychopath with a killer cattle gun and an even-more-killer haircut. Bardem also appeared in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona and in Biutiful, which was helmed by Babel director Alejandro González Iñárritu and arrives in theaters this December.
Eat, Pray, Love is based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling, critically acclaimed memoir of same name. It tells of Gilbert's journey of self-discovery after a painful divorce and her subsequent world travels. The movie, which is in pre-production, will
be directed by Nip/Tuck writer-director Ryan Murphy, who also wrote and directed the big-screen adaptation of Augusten Burroughs' memoir Running with Scissors.
In addition to Roberts, who is starring as Gilbert, Columbia has signed Richard Jenkins, who was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar this past year for his performance in The Visitor. If cast, Bardem would play Gilbert's love interest during her world-wide excursion.
Brad Pitt is producing the movie along with Dede Garner.