Calls Woody Harrelson’s Performance “Stone Cold, Insane”
One of the many films that featured in our recently posted Most Anticipated piece was the reuniting of director Oren Moverman with his “The Messenger” stars Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson for the cop drama “Rampart” which shot late last year. Unfortunately, word from Foster now predicts a 2012 unveiling for the film rather than later this year, possibly lining the team up for a return to Sundance.
When quizzed about a festival appearance this year, Foster revealed it was more likely for “next year. We’re just cutting right now. We just got an assembly” before discussing the project in further detail, particularly talking up the performance of Harrelson as one the main figures in the story, which is based on the titular real-life scandal in the ‘90s, which saw an investigation of crooked L.A. cops end up with 70-plus officers implicated and convicted.
“I’m just saying it now, watch out for next awards season, Woody Harrelson’s performance in this movie ‘Rampart’ is insane. It’s insane what he did. And I don’t want to sound like a douchebag producer, but I am now. So, I’m just saying, ‘Rampart.’ Oren Moverman and I started a production company, so ‘Rampart’ was the first one we did together and we just tried to get the gang back. Woody is the only man for this job. He plays a cop in 1999, in ‘Rampart,’ in Los Angeles and it’s stone cold. Stone cold work. Robin Wright, Sigourney Weaver, Cynthia Nixon, Steve Buscemi [also co-star].”
Surprisingly, the film actually stars actor-rapper Ice Cube as the leading homicide detective sent to investigate Harrelson’s dirty cop, with Stella Schnabel, the daughter of director Julian, also a part of the cast. Of the production, Foster added that “there’s a lot of improvisation. But that’s based on Oren’s work and it’s based on James Ellroy’s script that Oren Moverman rewrote and then we do all this prep work. He works with each actor separately and then there’s no more rehearsal and whatever happens, happens. It’s a very different way to go and we think a successful one with the right people.”
The actor also took to discussing a few other of his other projects including “Contraband” which he reveals that he’ll be playing a character who is “moving import/export with Mark Wahlberg, my best friend … and we just move gear through the ports of New Orleans. There’s a great cast, Giovanni Ribisi has just got a killer role. Lukas Haas, Kate Beckinsale, it’s a fun cast” as well as “360” the latest project from “City Of God” director Fernando Meirelles which he says centers on “a sex-offender who is just getting out of prison and he’s looking to go to kind of a halfway house. Then there’s a storm when he’s at an airport and he’s kind of stuck there. There’s several different storylines, but he’s stuck at an airport with people.” That’s certainly our first hint of any of the storylines since the film was announced as it centers around multiple characters, dealing with infidelity at various stages.
We’re fairly big fans of Foster, an actor who has shown immense promise within his body his work (his turn in “3:10 To Yuma,” for instance) so we’re excited by his upcoming prominence on screen. It’s just a damn shame we probably won’t be seeing “Rampart” until next year. [Collider]
