The director Michael Hoffman has chosen his next project after leaving his Oscar nominated film The Last Station behind and fans of The Coens will be delighted to see their script of the remake of the 1966 Michael Caine/Shirley MacLaine thriller Gambit come to fruition.
The script has been doing the rounds for years in Hollywood (Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley were due to star at one point) but now Hoffman is firmly attached and will begin casting soon, with shooting to begin in London next year.
The original focused on the misadventures of two criminals (Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine) involved in an elaborate heist to steal a priceless antiquity from the world’s richest man. Of course being, both of them, pretty and young, things do wrong as love enters on the scene and chaos, cavorting and ‘capering’ ensues.
Sounds like pinches of To Catch a Thief, Vertigo and Bonnie and Clyde as told by… well, by The Coens, whose script has been around for a while, as has the production with Doug Liman attached at one point.
The words ‘comedy caper’ and ‘Coen’ usually go pretty well together, though their updating of the classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers didn’t rent the a hole in the world with the force of positive reviews but if the Coens are involved then I’m interested. I’m not sure if I would have rather had them behind the camera but hey – Hoffman’s got a pretty eclectic and interesting filmography so I’m game.
Potential for a Michael Caine cameo? High.
Deadliney source-ry.
