Stanley Tucci & Cloris Leachman Join Colin Firth & Cameron Diaz In Caper Comedy ‘Gambit’

Plus Earth-Shattering, Game-Changing First Look At The Film

Are you a young filmmaker, slowly coming to the realization that the film you’ve been sweating over for months, if not years, isn’t quite going to be what you hoped, even before you start filming. There’s one simple solution. Cast Stanley Tucci. Scientifically proven to make every film 15% better, the veteran character actor doesn’t just shine in good films, like “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Easy A,” but he also proves the few spots of pleasure in terrible ones, like “The Core,” “The Lovely Bones” and “Burlesque.”

It isn’t quite clear which way “Gambit,” the long-in-the-works remake of the Michael Caine/Shirley MacLaine caper comedy, will fall: on the plus side, it has a script by the Coen Brothers, and Oscar-winner Colin Firth in his first gig since winning the little golden man, on the other, it has “One Fine Day” director Michael Hoffman, and the long-off-her-game Cameron Diaz. But now, it has Tucci, so things can’t be too bad. The Hollywood Reporter broke news over the weekend that the actor has joined the project, along with veteran Oscar-winning actress Cloris Leachman (“The Last Picture Show“).

Firth plays a thief who teams up with a woman (Diaz) to steal a statue belonging to one of the world’s wealthiest men. Alan Rickman and Tom Courtenay are also on board, as the the mark, and a character known as “The Major” respectively — there’s no word as yet as to who Tucci or Leachman will play.

Filming’s currently underway in London, and Empire debuted a first look at the film. And by first look, we mean Firth wearing glasses and a shirt, and Diaz in a spangly jacket, standing next to some corrugated iron. Come on, CBS Films, you do better than that, can’t you? “Gambit” will arrive sometime in 2012.