Cormac McCarthy’s writing usually hits the bookshelves before being adapted for the big screen, as was the case with The Road and No Country For Old Men, but with upcoming movie, The Counselor, he’s going for a straight to cinema approach. The thriller is McCarthy’s first original screenplay for cinematic release and it sounds set to build out the storyline around big business drug trafficking.
McCarthy will be teaming up with Ridley Scott, who is both the director and one of the producers for the movie. With their combined flair for the momentous, dark and gothic side of cinema, plus a long list of successes that range from the Alien saga to Blade Runner and The Road, the new movie should be a shadowy portrayal of crime, greed and, more than likely, brutal punishment.
The film has some similarities in its basic concept with No Country For Old Men with the lead character getting in over his head and having to face the consequences of his decisions. This time it’s a lawyer played by Michael Fassbender (X-Men First Class) that gets mixed up in the world of drug trafficking. However, instead of the cat and mouse of Anton Chigurh and Llewelyn Moss, Fassbender will be a little more on the inside of a bowl with bigger fish around him.
However, Javier Bardem (Skyfall) will once again be joining forces with McCarthy with the addition of Cameron Diaz (Bad Teacher), Brad Pitt (Twelve Years A Slave) and Penélope Cruz (To Rome With Love) to the cast. John Leguizamo (who we still remember most for his role as Luigi in The Super Mario Bros. movie) will also star, along with Rosie Perez (White Man Can’t Jump) and Goran Višnjić (ER and The Deep).
Ridley Scott worked with Michael Fassbender recently on his 2012 big budget sci-fi thriller, Prometheus, building on the origins of the alien movie, while Javier Bardem played McCarthy’s impassive hitman, Anton Chigurh, in No Country For Old Men, so there should have been a pretty strong working relationship on the set of the movie. Add to that the fact that Bardem and Cruz are married and you’ve got quite a tight knot of interactions to look forward to.
The Counselor is due for release through 20th Century Fox on the 25th October 2013, giving us a hard hitting thriller from the two heavyweights. The film will probably be adapted as a novel too, adding even more weight to Cormac McCarthy’s significant literary might.
