Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
That Bruce Willis just keeps on truckin', don't he? He's just wrapped THE PRINCE with Jason Patric and John Cusack, and he's gearing up to shoot THE CAPTIVE which was originally scheduled to start lensing in March, but has now been pushed back. Now, he's signed onto two more projects that will (presumably) feature him in a starring capacity.
First off will be VICE, which Deadline says will start shooting in March (which may have led to THE CAPTIVE's delay). VICE takes place in a future where humans use androids to serve as sex-bots, and features Ambyr Childers (WE ARE WHAT WE ARE) as one android who decides that she "will not be subjected to criminal abuse". Bruce will be playing the proprietor of a decadent pleasure palace (which the film is named after) who will probably not be all too happy his sexy toy robot is getting all uppity and sentient on him. No word on who's directing that one, but the budget is in the 15 million range, so I'm hoping it's going to be more low-key and thematically ambitious than, say, SURROGATES, and that it has something weighty for Bruce to flex his acting muscles with.
Next, Bruce will join Bill Murray on Barry Levinson's new flick, ROCK THE KASBAH, which starts shooting in June. That film has Murray playing a washed-up music producer who finds his latest talent in Kabul, Afghanistan. The film was scripted by Mitch Glazer, who wrote the awesome SCROOGED and directed the borderline-unwatchable PASSION PLAY. No word on what Bruce's character will be, or who will play the young ingenue, but Levinson has a way with talented actors (seriously, DINER is like the first and best thing most of those actors ever did), so I'm hoping for MOONRISE KINGDOM-level performances from the two leads.
These projects certainly sound more interesting than another slapped-together DIE HARD movie, and reflect Bruce's recent ambitions to move away from action films. As someone who will always treasure that "actor" Bruce you see in movies like PULP FICTION, TWELVE MONKEYS, UNBREAKABLE, and even LOOPER, I'm looking forward to seeing if these upcoming projects can bring that talent to the surface.
-Vincent Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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