After securing a director in Michael Hoffman (“The Last Station,” “Game 6“), the long-gestating Coen brothers script “Gambit” (not the superhero, kids) now has a lead actor circling the project.
Deadline reports that Colin Firth — who has been eyeing the project for a while and currently riding a huge wave of awards season buzz (again) for his turn in “The King’s Speech” — is in talks to take on the lead role. The project is a remake of the Michael Caine/Shirley MacLaine caper movie that falls somewhere between “Vertigo” and “Charade,” and follows a debonair cat burglar (Firth) who, attempting to scam a billionaire out of a priceless statue, enlists the help of a waitress who bears a striking resemblance to his target’s late wife.
Ordinarily, this is the part where we roll our eyes at another remake but with the very clever pens of the Coen Brothers behind it, the script has attracted a lot of attention. It’s been knocking around for years, with the likes of P.J. Hogan, Hugh Grant, Ben Kingsley, Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Aniston all attached at various points, but the project now has funding via new kids on the block, Crime Scene Pictures, and a previously reported production start date of next May in London.
