Cinematical

William Hurt is in talks to play the president of the United States in Columbia Pictures’ Vantage Point, a thriller about an attempted presidential assassination. The picture has Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox on board, and is to be directed by Pete Travis, director of Omagh. (What? You haven’t heard of Omagh? It’s supposed to be quite good.)

Hurt won an Oscar for Kiss of the Spider Woman, but I loved him best as Tom Grunick, the pretty-boy anchorman who represented the trend towards entertainment news in 1987’s Broadcast News. He was Style foiled against the Substance found in Albert Brooks’ character, Aaron Altman. I can’t help but think of Altman’s rant against Grunick as an apt description of, um, some presidents: “He’ll be nice and helpful ... he’ll get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation ... he’ll just bit by little bit lower our standards where they’re important.”

Hurt is currently working on the MGM thriller, Mr. Brooks, but whither the other Mr. Brooks? I was wincing at those trailers for last year’s Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, but am glad to see this very funny man will be in the highly anticipated The Simpsons Movie.