Danny Boyle Wants Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson for TRANCE

Boyle continues to lock down a cast for his art-heist-gone-wrong thriller.

Last month it was revealed that Michael Fassbender had left Danny Boyle’s upcoming heist thriller ‘Trance’ due to “scheduling conflicts.” At that same time his ‘X-Men: First Class’ co-star James McAvoy was in talks to join the project, leading to speculation that McAvoy was to replace Fassbender. However, it was then revealed that McAvoy was in fact being considered for a different role. Now, according to Twitch, the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ director is pursuing Colin Firth to take Fassbender’s role.

The movie centers on an assistant at an auction house who masterminds an art heist, but things take an unexpected turn when the assistant suffers a blow to the head and wakes up with amnesia. As he is the only one who knows the location of the stolen art, the other thieves in the gang become suspicious of him and begin to suspect that he might be faking the loss of his memory, leading them to bring in a hypnotist to search his mind.

Twitch has also got word that Scarlett Johannson is being eyed for the female lead, and that the actress is in contention with Zoe Saldana and Mélanie Thierry for the role. Though no formal offers have yet been made, Firth and Johannson are apparently Boyle’s top choices for the project.