The Playlist is showing the first picture of Brad Pitt in the upcoming film, Cogan’s Trade, adapted by writer/director Andrew Dominik from the 1974 novel of the same name by George V. Higgins.
It’s not clear if the picture is an official still or just an on-set photo, but it looks pretty promising either way. Brad Pitt is truly a man of many talents, twice-nominated for an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actor in 1995’s 12 Monkeys, and Best Actor in 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and few actors could pull off the slicked-back hair, goatee-sporting, leather jacket-wearing, and shotgun-bearing look quite as well as Pitt does. And he makes it look good.
Cogan’s Trade sees Pitt as a professional enforcer, hired to get to the bottom of the heist of a high-stakes card game protected by the mob. Scoot McNairy (Monsters) and Ben Mendelsohn (Animal Kingdom) are the perpetrators of said heist, and Ray Liotta (Smokin’ Aces) is the one running the game. Richard Jenkins (Let Me In), James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), and Vincent Curatola (The Sopranos) will also be starring. I’m quite looking forward to Gandolfini and Curatola appearing together again after The Sopranos ended back in 2007.
To date, Dominik has written and directed two films, both of which have been very much well received. His first film, Chopper, essentially put Eric Bana on the map, and his second, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was quite simply brilliant, and gave Casey Affleck a chance to show he’s every bit as good an actor as his brother, Ben. Given Pitt and Dominik’s brilliant work together on Dominik’s second film, I think the pair teaming up again for Cogan’s Trade promises much. It will undoubtedly be ranking high on many people’s Top Lists of 2012, certainly including my own, with a release date scheduled in just under a year from now, on 3rd March next year.
In all honesty, I’m yet to see Pitt in a single film that I haven’t loved. There are few actors with such an impeccable track record as his, and Cogan’s Trade sounds like it’s going to be another addition to Pitt’s already exceptional career.
