Earlier this year, Christoph Waltz won his second Oscar in four years, picking up the trophy, just as he did in 2010’s “Inglourious Basterds,” for playing an erudite German man in a Tarantino picture, in this case “Django Unchained.” As a result, the actor is, if it was possible, even more in demand than he was before; he’s got Terry Gilliam‘s “The Zero Theorem” and sequel “The Muppets… Again!” in the can, he’ll play Gorbachev to Michael Douglas‘ Reagan in “Reykjavik,” and has a plum role in Tim Burton‘s “Big Eyes“ coming up too.
But there’s always room for one more, and in this case, it’s a project that Waltz has been linked to for the best part of a year; a press release, via Deadline and others report that the Austrian actor has signed on to “Syriana” director Stephen Gaghan‘s “Candy Store.” Waltz was first mentioned for the project back in August ’12, when Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Bradley Cooper were all said to be on the project’s hitlist.
None of that lot ended up on board (and neither did Chris Hemsworth, who was said to be on board earlier this year, but seems to have bailed in favor of the Michael Mann project), but the film still has a promising cast firming up, with Jason Clarke, Robert De Niro and Omar Sy all on board. Clarke takes the lead as a former covert op who comes up against the organization he once fought overseas, while De Niro plays an ex-cop, Sy an ‘international sex trade entrepeneur’ and Waltz a ‘Cold War consigliere posing as a typical American suburbanite.’
It sounds quite curious, and it remains to be seen whether Gaghan intends to deliver a sober geo-political thriller like his previous directorial outing ‘Syriana,” or something pulpier, but from the description we’re expecting something a little closer to the latter. Lionsgate have the U.S. rights, while foreign pre-sales are currently being shopped at Cannes (where Waltz is serving with Ang Lee and Nicole Kidman, among others, on Steven Spielberg’s jury). There’s no exact word on when we’ll be seeing the film, but fingers crossed it’ll be before 2014 is done.
