After a decade in development, it's finally coming together. The French newspaper Le Parisien is reporting (picked up by The Playlist) that Christopher Walken and Johnny Hallyday will be joining the cast of Tony Scott's **Potsdamer Platz. Mickey Rourke and Javier Bardem, reportedly in talks a couple of months ago, are now also officially aboard.
The line we keep hearing about Scott's crime drama, based on the novel by Buddy Giovinaza, is that it involves two New Jersey brothers trying to take their local crime syndicate international. The blurb on the No Exit Press edition of the the book has it as the redemptive tale of a mafioso who decides to change his life after the accidental killing of a teenage girl. Falling in love with a medical student however, he finds himself torn between conflicting loyalties to his new life and his old Family.
This will be Walken's fourth film for Scott, following True Romance, Man on Fire and Domino. Rourke was also in Domino, and has been linked to Scott's if-and-when Sonny Barger biopic Hell's Angels. Bardem and Hallyday are newcomers to the Scott rep company. We believe you may be familiar with Bardem, but if you're not au fait with the French actor and musician Hallyday, you'd be very well-advised to check out L'Homme du Train{
Early reports suggested possible involvement for Jason Statham, Al Pacino and Gene Hackman, but there's no movement on those scores. Hackman, we imagine, will stay rooted in his retirement, despite it being a request from his director on Crimson Tide and Enemy of the State.
Potsdamer Platz itself, is a square (and a train station) in Berlin. Since the screenplay by Sexy Beast writers David Scinto and Louis Mellis relocates the action to Puerto Rico, expect a change of title to be announced before too long. Shooting starts in South America in January.