Vincent Gallo Eschews 'Retirement' To Star In Francis Ford Coppola's 'Tetro'

If you thought Vincent Gallo was full of shit when he announced he was retiring from film you were right. If you thought the filmmaker / musician/ artist / renaissance man was “retiring” as an excuse to get away from his starring aside his ex-fiancée, Asia Argento, you would also be correct.

To back up for a sec, Argento’s father – the renowned Italian horror maestro, Dario Argento – had cast Gallo in his upcoming film, “Giallo.” However, Argento went and did a thing like hiring his daughter Asia to also appear in the film, and then Gallo started to develop cold feet and every excuse in the book-itus.

“I’ve been trying to get out of it. I’d rather not be in a movie with her. I’m not a fan. I was a fan of her father’s. I am retiring,” Gallo apparently told the press.

Well, the “retired” Gallo has just signed to on to star in Francis Ford Coppola’s latest film, “Tetro,” alongside Oscar winner Javier Bardem and “Y Tu Mama Tabien” female lead Maribel Verdu, who will play Gallo’s love interest (best of luck to her).

The film is said to be drama set in Argentina about a family torn apart by rivalries and betrayal. Relative newcomer Alden Ehrenreich will the younger brother who searches for Gallo in Buenos Aires and Bardem plays an Argentinean literary critic.

After a decade of cinematic silence Coppola is a bit on a creative tear, having just released his metaphysical drama “Youth Without Youth” in late 2007. There’s no distributor yet, but the production is hoping to release the film sometime in 2009. The film’s budget is less than $15 million and will begin production in Buenos Aires at the end of March and by April we should presumably hear all of the stories about how working with Gallo is pure hell.

Would he dare be a jackass to the maestro Coppola? That would be some high-grade disrespect in our book.