This is not an article about Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington slashfic set to the tones of 50 Cent’s sugary sex-metaphors. I just want to clear that up right away.
Stephen Gaghan hasn’t directed a feature film since 2005’s Syriana, which I haven’t seen since it overwhelmed me in theaters seven years ago. The dense geopolitical drama and multi-narrative structure left me (and plenty of professional, not 17-year-old film critics, I’ll add) a bit glazed-over, if definitely impressed. I’m keen to revisit the film having learned writer/director Stephen Gaghan has crafted a new script that both Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington are in very early stages of negotiation to take the two “meaty” roles it offers.
Gaghan’s new project, which he’ll also be directing, centers around a CIA operative who quits the spy game and attempts to simplify his life by enlisting in the NYPD. As he begins a new career on the beat in Brooklyn though, he soon discovers the shady network he pursued as an operative is also active in his new backyard.
The more straightforward story alone suggests The Candy Store (weird, weird title) will be a little easier to consume than Syriana, but I’m expecting no less of a sophisticated story from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Traffic.
I’ll keep you up on this one- I’m certainly intrigued.
Update: The Wrap (via /Film) says Christoph Waltz is one of Gaghan’s priority casting targets, and that if Brad Pitt doesn’t hop on then Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Bradley Cooper are also guys the production will seek to involve instead. Another synopsis reads pretty much as I described above, except that it includes the detail that the operative is somehow disgraced and flees to his life in Brooklyn to start over after “losing everything.”
Source | THR (via Dark Horizons)