After star Charlize Theron and director Bharat Nalluri left the project a week ago, we wrote about our fears that spy-thriller “The Tourist” would hire a more conventional helmer, particularly as Angelina Jolie was said to be circling the project. As it turns out, her participation depended on finding the right director for the film, and the star is now set to sign on, with the understanding that German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who won an Oscar for 2006’s “The Lives of Others.” It’s an interesting choice, and one we fully support — while we found that film to be slightly overpraised, it was still a very strong debut, and we’ve been keen to see where von Donnersmarck would go from it.
Jolie has picked the project over several other possibilities — Variety particularly mentions that Jolie has turned down the sequel to “Wanted,” which can only be a good career move at this point. We gave Jolie a hard time when we first reported on this story for never having made a good movie, but to clarify, we think she’s been unlucky — she’s given several excellent, awards-worthy performances, particularly in Michael Winterbottom’s “A Mighty Heart”, but the films have rarely matched her abilities, ranging from disappointing (the Winterbottom picture divides us here at The Playlist, but this writer thinks it doesn’t quite work) to disastrous.
But collaborating with the likes of von Donnersmarck and Philip Noyce, on the upcoming spy movie “Salt” will hopefully break the streak soon. The movie will start shooting next year, for a 2011 release. Is Sam Worthington still the male lead? It sounds like it, but it doesn’t seem 100% clear either.
Gonna vehemently disagree here. The Lives Of Others was unequivocally great.