In addition to earning near unanimous critical raves, earning an Oscar nomination and taking home plethora of awards at its native Australian Film Institute ceremonies, “Animal Kingdom” has been a major career boost for its stars. Joel Edgerton has a handful of movies on the way including “Warrior,” “The Thing,” “The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” “The Great Gatsby” and he’s in the lead for Katherine Bigelow‘s Bin Laden project. Meanwhile, the Oscar nominated Jacki Weaver is taking a turn from her villainous role as Smurf, taking a part in the Jason Segel and Emily Blunt rom-com “Five Year Engagement.” And now, it’s Ben Mendelsohn‘s turn to shine.
Variety reports that the vicious Pope is going to “The Place Beyond The Pines” with Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes and Greta Gerwig. The film centers on Luke (Gosling), a motorcycle stunt rider who turns to robbing banks to support his son, but winds up crossing paths with a police officer-turned-politician (Cooper), kicking off a simmering generational feud. Mendes will play the mother of Gosling’s child, while Gerwig is stand beside Cooper as wife. Mendelsohn will play the awesomely named Robin Van Der Zee, a mechanic who who takes Luke into his bank robbing operation. Sweet.
Mendelsohn is lining up quite the Hollywood career as well, with “Trespass,” “The Killer Elite” and “Cogan’s Trade” all on the way. This is a ridiculously great cast, with a great story and we can’t wait to see how Cianfrance elevates and tweaks his game. Filming begins on July 25th.
