At this point in time, Jude Law seems to have found his place in the Hollywood star system. He's been cropping up in movies for over fifteen years, but he was always more of a character actor than a leading man, and when pushed into more traditional star roles, in films like "Enemy At The Gates," "Cold Mountain" and "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," he always sat a little uncomfortably. But these days, he gets to play second fiddle in the mega-hit "Sherlock Holmes" franchise, a far more natural fit, which gives him the freedom to tackle quirkier supporting roles in films like "Contagion."
But for the right project, his leading man days aren't over, and the actor's just signed up to a very promising-sounding dark comedy, with the Hollywood Reporter bringing news that Law is now attached to "Dom Hemingway," a new film written and directed by Richard Shepard, who was behind the underrated hitman comedy "The Matador." Law will play the title character, a larger-than-life ex-con safecracker who sets out with his best friend (to be played by "Withnail & I" star Richard E. Grant) to pick up his payment for keeping his mouth shut for 12 years in the nick.
Shepard made a lot of waves with "The Matador," but his follow-up "The Hunting Party," with Richard Gere and Terrence Howard, flopped, and he's been mostly working in TV since, with work on "Ringer" and, most recently, HBO's "Girls." But we're glad he's making a comeback, and we're certainly intrigued by the pairing of Law and Grant in a film like this. BBC Films and veteran producer Jeremy Thomas ("The Last Emperor") are backing the project, and it's being pre-sold in Cannes this week, ahead of a shoot planned for the fall of this year, so all being well, we'll see it on the festival circuit in 2013.