Wow – since bagging an Oscar nom for her work in Juno, Ellen Page hasn’t been resting on her laurels. She’s already lined up acting gigs in Sam Raimi’s new horror (oh, please God, let it be good), Drag Me To Hell, followed by Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Whip It. And now she’s added a third title to her dance card – she’ll star alongside Cillian Murphy and his mad scary eyes in the psychological thriller, Peacock.
Set in the titular Nebraska town, the movie revolves around Murphy’s character, a split personality who fools the town into thinking that his two personalities are man and wife. Which sounds pretty far-fetched to us – after all, the eyes are a dead (scary and mad) giveaway, even if Murphy does end up in a dress.
Page – who knows psychological thrillers, having made her mark with Hard Candy – will play a struggling young mother who holds the key to Murphy’s past (where would we be without characters like this? Have you ever met anyone who holds the key to unlocking your past, readers? Empire hasn’t) and who sparks a war between Murphy’s alter-egos.
Shooting starts in May, under the auspices of director Michael Lander, who co-wrote the script with Ryan Roy.
It all sounds intriguing, and the casting of Page and Murphy would certainly seem to elevate it above the status of schlock, so we’ll keep an eye on this one. But what price that Page’s agents are just a little angry right now? If she’d waited a few weeks, she might have been booking this gigs as Oscar winner Ellen Page, rather than Oscar nominee Ellen Page, and that would obviously mean a few extra bucks in everyone’s back pocket. Still – at least it proves, categorically, that this rather special young actress really does care only about the work.