From 3rd Rock from the Sun to Premium Rush and Beyond: Tracking the Career of Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Posted 08.22.12 by BrentJS
When so many child actors fall victim to their own celebrity, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is truly a success story. Landing his first roles in TV movies at the tender age of six, Gordon-Levitt became a household name thanks to the five-and-a-half seasons he spent playing Tommy Solomon on 3rd Rock from the Sun. It would took him several years to find the kind of roles that would allow him to prove that he has what it takes to be a leading man, but impressive turns in the neo-noir crime movie Brick and the bittersweet dramedy (500) Days of Summer paved the way for higher-profile roles in Christopher Nolan's mind-bending blockbuster, Inception and his follow-up, The Dark Knight Rises. This week, Gordon-Levitt will take to the streets as Wilee, a New York City bicycle messenger who receives a dangerous package in writer-director David Koepp's (Ghost Town) new thriller, Premium Rush.
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Premium Rush was co-written by Koepp and John Kamps. The cast includes Dania Ramirez (Quarantine), Michael Shannon (Take Shelter) and Jamie Chung (Sucker Punch). Here's the synopsis:
Dodging speeding cars, crazed cabbies, open doors, and eight million cranky pedestrians is all in a day’s work for Wilee, the best of New York’s agile and aggressive bicycle messengers. It takes a special breed to ride the fixie — super lightweight, single-gear bikes with no brakes and riders who are equal part skilled cyclists and suicidal nutcases who risk becoming a smear on the pavement every time they head into traffic.
But a guy who’s used to putting his life on the line is about to get more than even he is used to when a routine delivery turns into a life or death chase through the streets of Manhattan. When Wilee picks up his last envelope of the day on a premium rush run, he discovers this package is different. This time, someone is actually trying to kill him.
Down the road (no bicycle messenger pun intended), Gordon-Levitt will star in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, and play a young Bruce Willis in the time-tripping mobster movie, Looper, from Brick director Rian Johnson. Gordon-Levitt is not limiting himself to acting, however. He recently wrote and directed his first feature, Don Jon's Addiction, in which he stars opposite Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore as a porn-addicted, modern-day Don Juan who tries to become less self-absorbed. Having already accomplished so much by the age of 31, we know we've only begun to see all that Gordon-Levitt has to offer.
Next Showing: Premium Rush opens Friday