Putting aside for a moment our comment section’s belief that we’re firmly in the tank for Ryan Gosling (if you’d seen our scowling faces on the way out of “Stay,” “Fracture” or “All Good Things,” you’d know that wasn’t true…), the actor’s definitely having a moment. For some time, he’s seemed reluctant to become a fully fledged movie star, but next week sees him in what looks to be real crowd-pleaser in “Crazy Stupid Love,” his noir flick “Drive” picked up ecstatic reviews at Cannes, and he’s got a whole raft of projects lined up: another crime picture with Nicolas Winding Refn, the Bangkok-set “Only God Forgives,” plus one more with Derek Cianfrance, “The Place Beyond The Pines,” while he’s also toplining two tentpoles, “Gangster Squad” and “Logan’s Run” in the more distant future.
But before most of these, he’s heading another excellent ensemble film, in the George Clooney-helmed political drama “The Ides Of March,” and Rope of Silicon has posted the first official look at the actor in the film. Gosling plays a youthful press secretary for a presidential candidate (played by Clooney, whose Obama-style poster debuted a few months back, can also be seen), who becomes embroiled in dirty tricks when approached by a rival campaign manager (Paul Giamatti).
Those three top a cast that also includes Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Evan Rachel Wood, Jeffrey Wright and Max Minghella, with a script by Beau Willimon (who wrote the play, “Farragut North,” on which it’s based), Clooney and Grant Heslov, and a score by Alexandre Desplat, so it’s got a pretty good pedigree at this point. The film will open the Venice Film Festival on August 31st before landing in theaters on October 7th, so we imagine we’ll see a trailer sooner rather than later. 
