Check it Out, a Meaty Role for Sean Bean!
Filed under: Drama, Independent, Casting, Warner Brothers, Newsstand, Cinematical Indie
Back when the news came out about the cast for the Hitcher remake, I lamented the fact that Sean Bean has somehow turned into the foreign guy that Hollywood tends to cast as a heavy in pretty much anything (either that or he's a really boring, barely-written token male), a tendency that is very much at odds with both his early career and a lot of the TV work he does in England. Well, today comes news that he's been cast in a part that might actually allow him to, you know, act a little bit -- hooray!Variety is reporting that Bean and fellow Brit Tilda Swinton will play the leads in Come Like Shadows, and independently-financed project being produced by the WB-based Milk & One Sugar. The film is a version of the Macbeth story that, while it will be set during an appropriate time, is expected to be (and this is where things get a little wonky) "user-friendly to a contemporary audience." God only knows what that means, but it makes me a little nervous, just because we can handle Shakespeare that isn't dumbed down, dammit! For Bean, the gig is a return to Macbeth -- he played the role on stage in London three years ago.
Both Steven Soderbergh and Luc Besson are involved in the film as well (the former will executive produce, and post-production will take place in Besson's EuropaCorp facilities), which makes it sound like it might be sort of big and shiny and, just maybe, good. Production begins this fall in Scotland; director will be John Maybury.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-28-2006 @ 7:44PM
The Jeremy said...
If you want to see Sean Bean in a meaty role, set your TiVo to record his *Sharpe* mini-series adventures that BBC America televises every Saturday night.
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6-29-2006 @ 11:16PM
Diana said...
When Googling for more details about this a couple of days ago, I found that there is a young adult-fantasy novel called by Welwyn Wilton Katz called "Come Like Shadows". I haven't read it yet, but I gather that in the novel there's intercutting between (contemporary) reality, a historical reality where Macbeth is a real person, and a third realm of the theatre/stage. I just assumed that the film is going to be based on that.
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6-30-2006 @ 1:23AM
Gilbert Davis said...
You know, I was thinking the same thing about Sean Bean as I watched him die in that Lord of the Rings movie. The character he played there was far weaker and flawed than anything I remembered him in. I saw his phoned in work on Silent Hill and wondered why such a good actor was doing in that part - the nonaction husband. I'm glad to hear that he's found an acting part, he's too good of an actor to be stuck as the weak character in Ronin or any of the other parts where all they want is weak, flawed and disposible.
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7-17-2006 @ 10:08PM
Elizabeth said...
He also stars in the BBC miniseries "Extreamly Dangerous" if you can catch it.
Sean Bean is an actor with a wonderful mastery of body language. He is much better than the roles that he has been given. Sean has made many movies successful because his bad guys that were sufficently menaceing make the movie crediable. The hero would just look like a bully if his adversary is a putz. Where would Patroit Games have been without him?
That said, I wish that they would stop using him to make other guys look good.
When you see Sharpe, you know that Sean was born to play the hero.
He should be the new BOND.
He has been OO6, he should be OO7.
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