Despite looking like perhaps the breakout star from the already-classic HBO show “The Wire,” English actor Dominic West, who played rule-breaking cop Jimmy McNulty on the series, hasn’t had much luck on the big screen since it ended, with straight-up paycheck roles in the likes of “Hannibal Rising,” “Punisher: War Zone” and “Centurion” marking the majority of his career since. And, while things are looking up slightly, with Andrew Stanton’s “John Carter of Mars” and the intriguing ghost story “The Awakening” on the way, the project that he signed on to today goes on to back up the idea that West may need a new agent…
According to The Hollywood Reporter, West has joined the cast of “Johnny English Reborn,” the sequel to the 2003 Rowan Atkinson vehicle, and the cinematic equivalent of being reassigned to harbor patrol. Atkinson again toplines, with the previously announced Gillian Anderson also on board, along with Rosamund Pike and rising star Daniel Kaluuya (who we saw on stage in the boxing drama “Sucker Punch” recently, and trust us, he’s going to be huge).
Production Weekly had previously reported that Pierce Brosnan was in negotations for a role, which we imagine is the one that West has taken over; our best guess, bearing in mind the associations that Brosnan carries, is that it’s a rival spy of some kind. The plot, such as it is, will find English and his protege (Kaluuya) trying to foil a group of international assassins trying to kill the Chinese premiere.
The script is from Hamish McColl (“Mr. Bean’s Holiday”) and William Davies (“How To Train Your Dragon”), while Oliver Parker, who helmed the staggeringly incompetently-made “St. Trinian’s” films, is in the director’s chair. It’ll hit theaters next year and, like all the Working Title/Rowan Atkinson pairings, will make little money in the States, but prove to be a 400-pound gorilla at the international box office.
harbor patrol… great reference.