In just a few weeks, shooting begins on Ridley Scott’s The Counselor. Based on an original screenplay by legendary novelist Cormac McCarthy, with Ridley Scott in the directing chair and a crackerjack cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt, it frankly couldn’t sound better.

Our excitement is clearly shared by Pitt, who’s in Cannes for the world premiere of Andrew Dominik’s crime thriller Killing Them Softly, and who said a few words about The Counselor to us earlier today.

“I’m only doing a few days on that,” he explains. “Andrew and I are both Cormac McCarthy fans — I mean, I’ve read every word the guy’s published and most of them more than once. So this was a chance to do something of his and also to work with Ridley again. Ridley gave me my first break into the big leagues [with 1991’s Thelma & Louise]. And I’m a Fassbender fanatic too.”

Though his part is small, Pitt has proven himself well capable of stealing the show with a cameo: think his scuzzy hitchhiker J.D. in the aforementioned Thelma & Louise, or bong-loving layabout Floyd in True Romance. In The Counselor he plays a character called Westray, who helps Fassbender’s lawyer get hold of a $20 million stash of cocaine. So, following his hitman in Killing Them Softly, it’s fair to say he’s playing another criminal?

“You know, I kinda am,” considers Pitt. “It’s ill-defined, but yeah, I kinda am.”