Discuss: Gary Oldman Returning to the Bad-Guy Fold?
Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Thrillers, Casting
I dug John Cusack in Grosse Point Blank, and many other actors who have taken on the role of hit man. However, none of them really compare to the thought of Gary Oldman getting down with his bad self once again. As Peter mentioned yesterday, the actor is in talks to join the cast of the Japan-set thriller Rain Fall. Should the negotiations go well, Oldman will play Unfortunately, don't start dreaming of a new Professional quite yet. While the film is adapted from Barry Eisler's best-selling novel, it's a Japanese production that will be shot mostly in Japanese, with only 15% of the dialog being English. I'm not quite sure how that works, but I guess we'll see soon enough. Eisler's book follows Rain, a Japanese American half-breed who used to be part of the US Special Forces. As a hit man, he's got a skill for making his hits look like natural death. He performs a hit for a computer disc, that many are looking for, and happens to fall in love with the hit's daughter. Oldman will be joined on-screen by Shiina Kippei and Akiho Hasegawa.
I love Oldman's recent stints in Harry Potter and the new Batman series, but really, is there anything like bad-ass Oldman? Which baddie do you prefer?
*Gah. In my fangirl haze, I mistaken misread the piece as Oldman being the assassin. My apologies! Jonathan is probably right, but still, this could be a creepy role for the actor. Bring on the creep!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-20-2008 @ 2:39PM
Rufus said...
Oh wow... this could potentially be sooooo good.
That's it, just a quick pro-Oldman blurb ;)
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3-20-2008 @ 2:46PM
Jonathan Burdick said...
I believe you're mistaken. I haven't seen anywhere that said Gary Oldman would be playing main character John Rain. In fact, it's probably a pretty safe bet that he is playing one of the CIA operatives that the Variety article mentions.
Reasoning would suggest that Shiina Kippei, who it says this movie also stars, would be playing John Rain, especially since a quick google of the character will tell you that he is half-Japanese.
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3-20-2008 @ 2:58PM
D Records said...
the jamaican drug dealer in true romance was one of his best bad-guy roles, but jean-baptists emanuel zorg from the fifth element was freaking awesome.
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3-20-2008 @ 4:32PM
Gilbert Davis said...
Japanese American 'Half-Breed?' What? Is that like 'Half-Breed' Barack Obama? 'Half-Breed' Cher? 'Half-Breed' Mariah Carey? Pretty offensive bit of a figure of speech there.
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3-20-2008 @ 4:45PM
Wendy said...
Gary Oldman is just plain awesomeness. I wish he made more movies; I love him in the Batman films and in the Harry Potter ones, but there just isn't enough Oldman going around to satisfy my adoration of him as an actor.
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3-20-2008 @ 4:49PM
Wendy said...
I think that a world with more Oldman is a better world.
I just wish he had bigger roles - starring ones that give him more screen time as opposed to the Batman/Potter films, in which he is amazing but he isn't around too much.
The way I see it, the more Oldman the better, regardless of the role.
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3-20-2008 @ 4:51PM
Wendy said...
Now that I've accidentally left two messages I thought I'd leave a third saying that I thought the first one didn't go through.
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