Since taking a leading role in David Fincher’s The Social Network last year as the Winklevoss twins, Armie Hammer has seen his stock rising in Hollywood and then some. He’ll next be seen starring in the Oscar-buzzed J. Edgar for Clint Eastwood, followed up by the first of next year’s Snow White films, Mirror Mirror. And not only that, but he’s taking the titular role and starring opposite Johnny Depp in the much-talked-about The Lone Ranger adaptation.
Deadline are now reporting that Hammer is set to take a dark turn after The Lone Ranger, starring opposite Eric Bana in By Virtue Fall, which is set to be the directorial debut of Sheldon Turner, Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air co-writer, who’s also written the screenplay.
“Hammer will play an ATF agent framed on a corruption beef and sent to a maximum security federal prison. He turns into a badass to survive, and when he emerges from that hellhole, he devotes himself to getting revenge on the person who destroyed his life: his former partner (Eric Bana).”
I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty great to me. (For anyone else who didn’t know, the ATF is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; I guess they must have added the ‘explosives’ bit after they thought up the acronym.) The good guy-turned-badass might be a tried and tested formula, sure, but it’s one that works when it’s done well, and I think Hammer and Bana have the potential to make this work brilliantly.
Hammer’s talents were well recognised last year in Fincher’s film, and it’s great to see that other filmmakers have taken notice. With such a terrific line-up of films to follow in the coming years, it looks like there’s going to be no stopping him, and Hammer’s going to be a name and face we’ll get to hear and see even more in the future. His next film, J. Edgar, is due out on 20th January, so it’s not long before we’ll get to see him return to the big screen, and I can’t wait to see what he’s like in it alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Naomi Watts.
