With Disney giving Angelina Jolie's big fairy tale movie "Maleficent" a March 14, 2014 release date yesterday, will the actress have time to squeeze in another movie before cameras roll this summer? If so, it will be one of the hottest projects brewing.
According to Vulture, the actress is in talks for a small role in Ridley Scott's "The Counselor" which as you all know by now, boasts a script from none other than "The Road" and "No Country For Old Men" author Cormac McCarthy. Set mostly in the border country where Cormac McCarthy's stories often take place, the screenplay follows the titular character — an attorney, whose name we never learn — who is in search of a big payday after he proposes to his girlfriend, Laura. So he hooks up with Reiner, an acquaintance with deep criminal ties, for a new business proposition: they'll take $20 million worth of cocaine from south of the border and offload it themselves, aided by the no-good Westray. As you might imagine, things do not go well for anyone involved.
So far, the only confirmed cast member is Michael Fassbender, but in recent weeks Jeremy Renner, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman have all been circling the project. Of course, if Pitt and Jolie were both to take a role, it would mark their first time on screen together since "Mr. & Mrs. Smith." There is no word yet on exactly what part Jolie is taking a look at, but if it's a small role, then we presume it's for the part of Laura, the lead character's fiancé. We read the script and though we said she's a bit underwritten (nothing a punch up can't fix), she does have a couple of great scenes, including the opening sequence.
Scheduling shouldn't be an issue as "The Counselor" is set to lens in June, with "Maleficent" gearing up for July or August. Jolie and Scott haven't worked together before, but they do have a history, as the director was eyeing her Gertrude Bell biopic last fall. This would certainly be a nice way to test the waters of working together. Fox is now looking to finance and distribute the pic, provided Scott can pull together a compelling cast, and we don't doubt he'll able to do just that.
With it set to start in just a couple of months, here's hoping we get more official word on "The Counselor" soon…