We reported earlier that Shame star Michael Fassbender was contemplating starring in an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Counselor with Sir Ridley Scott at the helm. Now Deadline has confirmed the actor’s participation, and reports that the director is pushing for a May 1 launch of production.
Based on an original McCarthy screenplay, The Counselor is referred to as "No Country for Old Men on steroids" by an insider with knowledge of the plot. The source explains that the story centers on an attorney who thinks he can safely dabble in the drug trade on the side. But the deeper he gets into the criminal underbelly, the harder it’s going to be to come out cleanly on the other side.
Next, Scott will have to find an actor to play the main villain in the production, and Deadline is saying Jeremy Renner, Bradley Cooper and possibly even Brad Pitt are names being bandied about. Before you go thinking Pitt’s an impossibility, note that Scott gave him an early break by casting him in Thelma & Louise, and we’d all be psyched for a reunion.
As for Fassbender, when he clicks with a director, he seems to find projects in which they can work together. Twelve Days a Slave will be his third collaboration with Steve McQueen, he's set to reunite with Matthew Vaughn for a X-Men: First Class sequel, and Fassbender and Scott have the sci-fi thriller Prometheus, a reported Alien prequel, heading to theaters this summer.
