AidanGillen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Poor New Orleans! As if the real-life horrors of Hurricane Katrina and the broken levees weren't bad enough, now the beautiful city must suffer from the devastation wrought by Danny Fisher, played by former * WWE wrestler / entertainer John Cena in 12 Rounds, the latest train wreck from director Renny Harlin. "Damn the property damage! I'm going to save my girlfriend, whatever the cost!" is a noble sentiment, especially when you don't have to pay the bills.

Danny isn't really responsible for the carnage he causes, of course, even though he politely apologizes whenever he crashes into other people's vehicles or accidentally kills people. (Cena furrows his brow and turns his smile upside down, just so you know he's not happy with himself.) The real blame lies with Miles Jackson, who is seeking revenge on Danny for the death of his girlfriend. Jackson is described as an international arms dealer, but he spends much more time blowing things up and changing SIM cards in cell phones than any actual dealing of arms.

Aidan Gillen, who was superb as a cagey, ambitious, well-intentioned politician in The Wire, has much less to play with here, but it's fun to watch him try to juice up the role of an exceptionally-nasty master criminal with absolutely no scruples or second thoughts. He provides one of the few true pleasures in 12 Rounds, which should be a lot more fun than it is. Instead of embracing its loonier plot elements -- a fire engine crashing across town, a ticking time bomb on a public bus, an out-of-control street car -- 12 Rounds insists on playing it straight as a sober drama, ending up as Speed without the flirtations or thrills.

We seem to be moving into the season of the Nicolas Cage. The actor has a slew of projects cooking up, and has just added another to the mix. The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's going to work with helmer Dominic Sena (Gone in Sixty Seconds) again on a new film called Season of the Witch. But this isn't a tale of pointy hats and black cats. Cage will be a "14th century knight transporting a girl suspected of being the witch behind the Black Plague" to some monks that can exorcise her demons. So basically, he's going to be all armor-clad in an on-the-ground version of Con Air. The new bad lieutenant in the 14th century! Can you dig it?

Meanwhile, Variety reports that ex O.C. star Rachel Bilson has signed on for a stalkeriffic-sounding indie romance called Waiting for Forever. The film will focus on "a young man who's happy without a job and decides to spend the rest of his life with his love -- a 25-year-old TV actress living in Hollywood." Will he be creepy like the dudes in I Think We're Alone Now, or be cute, get the girl, and give stalkers everywhere the false hope and courage that it's okay to fulfill their stalker tendencies?

Finally, after jumping from the world of Harry Potter to Appaloosa, Timothy Spall is taking on some horror. The Hollywood Reporter posts that he, along with Aidan Gillen and Eva Birthistle, will star in a new horror flick called The Wake Wood. Instead of crazy killers, this flick will be about some "grieving parents who are given the opportunity to spend three more days with their only daughter after she is killed by a savage dog." I guess the horror comes in with the attack and trying to spend time with a girl who is ripped apart and, perhaps, rotting?

Just in case you can't get enough of the WWE already, they're really getting into the movie biz. Variety reports that they're teaming up with Fox Atomic for a new action movie called 12 Rounds. The flick will be helmed by Renny Harlin -- the man behind Die Hard 2, Deep Blue Sea, and my personal favorite -- A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. (Yes, I like that movie. A lot.) Now, being a WWE feature, there's got to be some wrasslin' in the mix, so the cast will be led by John Cena, and also include Steve Harris (The Practice), Aidan Gillen (The Wire), and Brian White (Stomp the Yard).

The picture will follow "a New Orleans police detective (Cena) whose girlfriend is kidnapped." Harris will play an FBI agent, presumably helping on the search, White is a cop who works with Cena's character, and Gillen, who used to be sweet as Aidan in Circle of Friends, is taking on the role of the kidnapper. According to IMDb, that also makes him an "evil crime lord" who forces him to go "12 Rounds," hence the film's title.

Should this work out as well as Cena's last WWE feature, The Marine, this should be a sweet moneymaker for the company. In the meantime, we've got to see if any of the rumored cast sticks around -- everyone from Al Pacino to Piper Perabo and Method Man have been rumored to have parts.