Jude Law is on a bit of a hot streak right now. After his transformed turn as Keira Knightley's cuckolded husband Karenin in Joe Wright's sublime "Anna Karenina," he's now taking on the lead role as a psyschiatrist caught in a mystery in Steven Soderbergh's "Side Effects," opening on February 8th. We recently caught up with the actor in Los Angeles to chat about "Side Effects," and he also dropped a few hints about some of his upcoming and rumored projects, including Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel," Werner Herzog's "Queen of the Desert," and a potential third "Sherlock Holmes" film.
First up is Anderson's film, which is now shooting, though plot details are firmly under wraps. What Anderson has shared thus far is that it's inspired by the movies of Ernst Lubtisch and Billy Wilder, and is set in the 1930s. But Law revealed that not only has he already completed shooting his part, the movie may be dipping into another era as well.
"I have a tiny role in it. Tiny tiny. I’ve just done it. It was five days of work," he said, adding that he's a big fan of the director and that, "it was really, really wonderful to be on one of his projects." He also dropped some hints about the plot, saying it takes place in two time periods: "…it’s mostly set in the '30s, and my segment’s set in the '60s." But he remained tight-lipped on the details of cast, saying only, "it’s [Wes'] usual team." But we already the know the cast includes new and familiar faces such as Ralph Fiennes, Saoirse Ronan, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody and Willem Dafoe.
As for projects that may or may not be happening, Law confirmed Naomi Watts' statement that Werner Herzog's Gertrude Bell biopic "Queen of the Desert" is now on hold and he will likely be no longer be available for it when it returns. "I don’t think that’s happening. I don’t think I can do that anymore," he admitted.
However, he seemed a bit more optimistic about a possible "Sherlock Holmes 3," though it may not be happening as soon as we think. "Robert [Downey Jr.]'s been very busy and I’ve been busy and it just hasn't lined up yet," Law explained. "I don't think it'll be this year. But that’s alright, the interest is still there."
We'll have more from our interview with Law next week when "Side Effects" hits theaters.