Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) is auditioning actors for Winter’s Tale, a passion project the writer-director has established at Warner Bros., and he’s circling a number of talents who’ve burst on the scene in 2011 with buzzworthy projects.

In a “Casting Couch” piece, The Hollywood Reporter says Goldsman has read with Tom Hiddleston (Loki in Marvel Films’ Thor and The Avengers) and Benjamin Walker (Timur Bekmembatov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) for the lead role of a criminal who finds himself on the run. Goldsman has penned a female part, as well, and is eyeing Bella Heathcote (In Time), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene), Gabriele Wilde (Three Musketeers) and Sarah Gadon (A Dangerous Method) to play a terminally ill character. The trade also notes that Russell Crowe is “loosely attached” to play the villain in the piece, though everything about Winter’s Tale is tentative and pending on Goldsman finding a third-party financier.

Goldsman has remained busy as a producer of the last two Paranormal Activity films, as well as the cult TV show Fringe. He hasn’t penned a feature-length screenplay since 2009’s Angels and Demons (for Ron Howard) however, and his last directorial credits are Fringe episodes from 2010. Perhaps that’s where he honed his craft while prepping Winter’s Tale. And if Goldsman wants to transition into film directing, he’s certainly eyeing the right talent, as virtually all of the names mentioned are noteworthy talents who have proven themselves in decent films. Having Mind co-star Crowe along as an off-screen mentor can only help Tale get off the ground, so we’ll be eager to see if the project takes shape some time soon.