Cinematical

You could be forgiven for reading today's casting news and thinking it was 1987. Two of the eighties' most reliable manly men, Tom Berenger and Michael Biehn, are teaming up for the crime thriller Stiletto. The film will be directed by actor/writer/producer/director Nick Vallelonga, who you might remember as "Prison Inmate Sitting Behind Henry" in Goodfellas. No? "Courtroom guard arresting Sean Connery" in Family Business? I'll move on. Stiletto stars Stana Katic from TV's Heroes, as "an assassin whose seemingly random killings puzzle her lover, her clients and the detective following her rising body count." Berenger will play her boyfriend, "whose rise in organized crime is offset by his love for her and his Mafia co-hort," played by Biehn. I assume it's a platonic love with Biehn -- any Sopranos fan knows mobsters aren't too understanding of alternative lifestyles.

Actor Paul Sloan wrote the script -- his first -- and will also play the detective trailing Katic. Dominique Swain (remember her from that Jeremy Irons version of Lolita? Yowza!), Kelly Hu (Again...yowza!) Diane Venora (loved her as Pacino's wife in Heat), Amanda Brooks, William Forsythe, and model human Tom Sizemore round out the cast. I've been saying for years that a Berenger comeback is long overdue. Nominated for an Oscar for his stellar work in Platoon, perfect in Major League, he still does tons of films, but I wonder where he went off Hollywood's "Big Time Star" radar and into the realm of B-movies. Maybe Sliver had something to do with it. Same goes for Michael Biehn, who made something of a triumphant return as Sheriff Hague in Grindhouse. Maybe if Eli Roth's proposed expansion of Thanksgiving actually takes place, Biehn will have another plum role -- he was great in the trailer. Either way, the guy's always got work as long as James Cameron is making films.