http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=85025
Having established a decade-plus long habit of selecting duds (6 Days, Seven Nights, Hollywood Homicide, many, many more) and turned down winners (Traffic, Syriana) and given us the odd bit of hope that turned to despair (Cowboys and Aliens, Indiana Jones IV), Harrison Ford may just have landed the sort of elder stateman role that he's long lacked. While Robert Redford was also high on the wishlist, Ford has snagged the role of legendary baseball exec Branch Rickey, who broke down segregation in the sport by signing the even more legendary Jackie Robinson.
The role was known to be Ford 'if he wants it', but that's usually when the silly old coot's 'duffer detector' kicks in and he rejects a sure-fire hit/ Oscar winner in favour of some monstrosity like Firewall. However, this time, he's signed up for writer/ director Brian Helgeland's movie. Interestingly, the pivotal role of Robinson has gone to a little-known actor called Chadwick Boseman, whose credits are mainly of the guest variety on tv.
From the press release:
Now, while I haven't seen Cowboys and Aliens, I must admit that I thought Ford looked a lot more alive and interesting in the trailer than he's looked in most of his recent output. And while I disliked Crystal Skull, I did think that he was the best thing in it. But he's lacked that great character movie that the likes of Connery, Redford, Newman and Eastwood have all done, to gracefully ease themselves from youthful/ middle-aged leading man to elder statesman of the silver screen. Could he finally have found it?
Having established a decade-plus long habit of selecting duds (6 Days, Seven Nights, Hollywood Homicide, many, many more) and turned down winners (Traffic, Syriana) and given us the odd bit of hope that turned to despair (Cowboys and Aliens, Indiana Jones IV), Harrison Ford may just have landed the sort of elder stateman role that he's long lacked. While Robert Redford was also high on the wishlist, Ford has snagged the role of legendary baseball exec Branch Rickey, who broke down segregation in the sport by signing the even more legendary Jackie Robinson.
The role was known to be Ford 'if he wants it', but that's usually when the silly old coot's 'duffer detector' kicks in and he rejects a sure-fire hit/ Oscar winner in favour of some monstrosity like Firewall. However, this time, he's signed up for writer/ director Brian Helgeland's movie. Interestingly, the pivotal role of Robinson has gone to a little-known actor called Chadwick Boseman, whose credits are mainly of the guest variety on tv.
From the press release:
Now, while I haven't seen Cowboys and Aliens, I must admit that I thought Ford looked a lot more alive and interesting in the trailer than he's looked in most of his recent output. And while I disliked Crystal Skull, I did think that he was the best thing in it. But he's lacked that great character movie that the likes of Connery, Redford, Newman and Eastwood have all done, to gracefully ease themselves from youthful/ middle-aged leading man to elder statesman of the silver screen. Could he finally have found it?
