Bruce Willis To Play Older Joseph Gordon-Levitt In Rian Johnson's Time Travel Film 'Looper'

Umm, ok. We don’t think that Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks anything like a young, handsome Bruce Willis, but Deadline says Rian Johnson seems to disagree.

And fine, we’ll take that leap of faith… for now.

Willis is set to play an older version of Gordon-Levitt in Johnson’s upcoming sci-fi pic “Looper.” As we reported recently, the film’s premise is based around time travel, with crime syndicate hitmen and their victims going back in time, thus leaving no body or evidence of the killer’s victim. Other than that little piece of info, we don’t know too much about the plot just yet and though the premise is simple, time travel film elements can easily get convoluted – ever see “Primer“? Let’s just hope that Johnson — who has penned some wickedly taut and sharp films in his short, auspicious career so far — will avoid those pitfalls.

The inclusion of Willis’s character does give us a few small hints as to the plot to the film, however. It’s all speculation, but if Willis and Gordon-Levitt are the two big names in the cast, then maybe they’re meant to meet and clash with one another – as it’s being billed as a “sci-fi thriller” we can presumably expect some sort of tension between the two and a brisk pace – “Solaris” this is not. Incidentally “Men In Black 3” is using a similar conceit with Josh Brolin playing a younger Tommy Lee Jones, and let’s just say right now that in that context it sounds horrible.

Casting Willis may have some people throwing up red flags, but we remind you that one of the actor’s few great films was Terry Gilliam‘s time-travel thriller “12 Monkeys,” so he’s played in this territory before. Not to mention the actor’s generally great in the hands of an auteur, see “Pulp Fiction,” “Sin City” and the aforementioned Gilliam film as prime examples (however he is generally remarkably terrible in the hands of a director who’s even a little less than amazing). As for Gordon-Levitt, not counting “3rd Rock from the Sun” (and why would you at this point?), he has mostly stuck to grounded dramas, with a comedy here or a war film there; the sci-fi genre is new to his resume, first appearing in the shape of this summer’s most anticipated film “Inception.” Shoot dates are not set yet, and although it’s not being shopped around at Cannes, buyers are reportedly jumping for it. That sounds like good news to us.

With Gordon-Levitt doing “Premium Rush” and Willis shooting “Kane and Lynch” at the end of summer, production will presumably (hopefully?) start in winter or spring depending on funding and schedules. Johnson has showed a lot of promise in his career thus far, and we’re looking forward to hearing more about this project in the next few months.