Jake Gyllenhaal may not have received an Oscar nomination for “Nightcrawler” on Thursday but he could still end the day with a win, as David Ayer is courting his “End of Watch” star to replace Tom Hardy as Rick Flagg in “Suicide Squad,” multiple individuals familiar with the comic book project have told TheWrap.
Warner Bros. had no comment, while a representative for Gyllenhaal didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hardy was forced to exit the project because Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “The Revenant” is going over schedule into mid-March, after which Hardy will be needed to promote WB’s “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which comes out on May 15. “Suicide Squad” is expected to start production in April, and that time crunch is why Hardy had to drop out of the film.
