www.chud.com/graphics13/DVDcolumn/brosnan.jpgPierce Brosnan has got a pretty bitching post-Bond career going on. The Matador was just a terrific movie, and he was amazing in it. His next film is the western Seraphim Falls, which I have seen, and it’s a film that makes you wish for a full-scale revival of the genre. Now he’s going to star in an adaptation of the book The Big Biazarro, which is by Leonard Wise.

No, this isn’t an Italian Superman story. It’s yet another gambling movie – this one set in the world of “high stakes international gambling,” which I think runs on a different voltage or something. Brosnan will play a mysterious master gambler who tutors a young’in. He’s essentially playing Paul Newman in The Color of Money, although I guess Newman wasn’t that mysterious.

The movie is being directed by Vondie Curtis-Hall. Yes, the director of Glitter. And Waist Deep, one of Stephen King’s favorite films of 2006. Brosnan’s company, Irish Dream Time, is producing, so I am really hoping that something about Curtis-Hall’s recents episodes of The Shield and Sleeper Cell convinced him that this guy has talent.

Also producing are the Maloofs, the lovable rich family who helped fund Project Greenlight’s last film, Feast. "We want to get more active, and this project is a perfect fit," said Andrew Jameson, who works for the Maloof company MMP. "Our plan is to be instrumental in the development of a project and, once we get a script and a star, involve a distribution partner."

Brosnan, meanwhile, is looking to stay busy. He has a sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair in the Works and a dark thriller called Butterfly on the Wheel on the way. He’s also looking to do more producing. "When you have a role like Bond, it becomes your life, and the time always went quickly between films," he said. "We managed to make six films over the last 10 years, but with Bond no longer in my life, it allows me more time and choices, and the chance to be adventuresome. I’ve been in all our projects so far, and I’d like to try just being the producer on some of these projects."