Perhaps if you read the title of this article aloud it would help. Tobey Maguire, the low energy actor who last web-slung through theaters in the universally beloved Spider-Man 3, has tossed aside the homemade superhero costume and slipped on a pair of legal briefs. I didn’t mean to make the end of that last sentence as hot as it ended up being. Wave your hand at your face at few times to cool down before continuing.
According to Variety, Maguire has just joined the in works flick The Crusaders, a film about the historic Brown vs. Board of Education case. The actor, who does a killer deer-in-headlights impression, is set to play Jack Greenberg, who, as an idealistic lawyer fresh out of law school, joined with NAACP Legal Defense Fund head and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to win a Supreme Court case that ruled segregation in American schools illegal. Greenberg is a tireless human rights advocate, working in this country and others to ensure….
(:::Drops a book unexpectedly to see if Maguire flinches.)
The movie reunites Maguire with director Gary Ross. Ross must have a very comfortable working relationship with the meditative actor – Maguire’s been the lead in the only movies (Pleasantville and Seabiscuit) that Ross has directed thus far. Danny Strong, who acted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and recently scripted HBO’s acclaimed Recount, has been tapped to handle writing chores for the movie. It’s nice to see Strong getting more penwork because, well, I liked him in Buffy. Shallow, I know…like the fixed stare of Tobey Maguire.
Sorry (a little) for punching up on Maguire in this very tiny news article. I did love the guy’s performance in Ang Lee’s under-seen Ride with the Devil. Jeffrey Wright’s exit from that flick is one of my favorite movie moments ever, by the way. Maguire, who may or may not don the Spidey suit for the inevitable fourth installment of that franchise, can been seen next in Tropic Thunder (very briefly, I imagine) and the upcoming Jim Sheridan flick Brothers.