Director Richard Loncraine obviously liked working with his pasty Wimbledon star Paul Bettany, as he’s following the striking British thesp to his next project and taking over the vacated chair on the Harrison Ford action-thriller The Wrong Element. Which I always thought was cobalt.
In the flick, Ford plays a bank security honcho who is coerced into breaking through his own system and swiping a load of cash in order to rescue his kidnapped family. Bettany, who realistically should be a much bigger star, will play the manipulative bastard with the bad case of greed.
Loncraine, better known for helming chatty period films like Brimstone & Treacle and Ian McKellan’s Richard III holofoil variant, gained a bit of action experience shooting the chaotic second episode of Band of Brothers, which involved both the D-Day paratrooper nightmare and Easy Company’s vital obliteration of German artillery.
The Wrong Element was originally to be directed by Mark Pellington (of the underappreciated Arlington Road and The Mothman Prophecies), who had to bow out after the death of his wife.