Taking a break from his latterday role as revolutionary political Jesus, Russell Brand has signed up for a Nicolas Cage comedy, joining the zen warlock for **Army Of One. Larry Charles (Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm) is directing, and has also been rounding out the rest of his cast with Rainn Wilson, Denis O’Hare, Ken Marino, Paul Scheer and Wendi McLendon-Covey.
The film is adapted by Scott Rothman and Rajiv Joseph from a stranger-than-fiction GQ article by Chris Heath (perhaps strangely, given Brand's antipathy for one of that publication's recent sponsors).
The story revolves around Colorado resident Gary Faulkner, who decided in 2010 that he was going to be the man to take down Osama Bin Laden. His plan was to track down and wipe out the most wanted man on the planet armed only with a sword he bought from a home shopping network, a pair of night-vision goggles and the fervent belief that he was doing God’s work. He tried to get to Pakistan 11 times.
Obviously, we know he didn’t succeed, but his mission made him a minor celebrity in the US, scoring him late night show appearances (see below) and no little notoriety. A year or so later, he brought out a gun in a disagreement with one of the tenants in the apartment complex, fired a warning shot and was packed off to jail, his actions compounded by the fact he was an ex-con.
Cage, it appears, will be Faulkner, but there's no word yet on who Brand, Wilson and co. will represent on screen. Shooting started, appropriately enough, on April 1, but there are no release dates in place yet.