Before he once again dons the tight-fitting yellow uniform of the dashing and daring James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise, in Star Trek 2 (working title) or becomes the fourth actor—after Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck—to bring Tom Clancy's heroic political character to life in the as-yet-untitled fifth Jack Ryan movie adaptation, rising actor Chris Pine might be playing a more "unsavory" character in a new movie from director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter) and producers Sarah Green (Tree of Life) and Aaron Ryder (My One and Only) titled Mud.
According to the LA Times, "a source close to the project" revealed that Pine is in talks to star in the coming-of-age drama as the title character, a fugitive of the law who needs the help of two 14-year-old boys to help him get off of an island in the Mississippi (Great Expectations meets The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, anyone?). Pine's Mud would not be a classic "black" villain, but more a shade of gray, a "redemptive character...who teaches the boys as much as he learns from them." In a recent interview, Ryder likened Mud to Stand By Me and said that working with Christopher Nolan on movies like Memento and The Prestige has helped to teach him "that you can make commercially viable movies that people want to see that are still smart and sophisticated."
Posted 05.18.11 by BrentJS