The race is on.
With Doug Liman’s “The Three Musketeers,” also gearing up for a fall shoot and readying for a 3D release, Paul W.S. Anderson is the first out of the gate to start lining up the cast for his “The Three Musketeers” film which will go in front of cameras in September.
The reimagining of the classic novel is taking one hell of an interesting turn, and it may end up being the first Paul W.S. Anderson film in Playlist history not to garner immediate derision. The director has lined up a formidable set of players for his tale with Ray Stevenson (“The Book of Eli”), Luke Evans (“Clash of the Titans”) and Matthew Macfadyen (“Robin Hood”) set to play the trio of Porthos, Athos and Aramis. But piquing our interest are the baddies of Christoph Waltz as Cardinal Richelieu and Mads Mikkelsen as Rochefort; two guys who care capable of crafting some memorable villains. Also confirmed is Anderson’s wife and “Resident: Evil” star Milla Jovovich as Athos’ former love, Milady de Winter.
But the real coup for Anderson will be if he can get the other pieces of his cast in place. Logan Lerman, the rumored candidate for Marc Webb’s “Spiderman” reboot is in negotiations to play D’Artagnan, which we imagine pretty much confirms that he’s not going to be Peter Parker. Last we heard, Sony was eyeing getting production on “Spiderman” started this year, though, with the film’s distant July 3, 2012 release date, Lerman could conceivably still be on board if the film doesn’t shoot until early 2011. We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out.
Also being offered a role is former “Pirates Of The Caribbean” shipmate Orlando Bloom. He is being eyed as the Duke of Buckingham. It’s yet another period role for Bloom but he could knock it out in his sleep, and Lord knows he could stand to be starring in something, anything at this point. His last leading, big screen appearance was in the last installment of ‘POTC’ (and we’re just going to forget that lame segment in “New York, I Love You” ever happened).
Anderson hopes to have “a contemporary feel….without losing the period setting” to his film. And while we won’t instantly shit on this, we’re still skeptical. But at the very least, the casting is pretty top notch thus far. But it remains to be seen if audiences are really going to be hankering for two 3D “Three Musketeers” films. Are one of these film’s going to blink first or can we expect two swashbuckling sword films in 2011?