Screenhead

A while back Screenhead reported that one of Kiera Knightley’s upcoming movies (and one of the few that is not a period drama) is the crime thriller London Boulevard, staring opposite Colin Farrell. The story, which is said to transpose the noir style of flicks like Sunset Boulevard (hence the title) and gumshoe tales onto a contemporary London setting, involves a criminal’s attempts to break free from his nasty past while being entangled in the life of a seductive actress.

And now the cast has added three heavyweigths of British acting. Ray Winstone (who has excelled in films such as The Proposition and Sexy Beast) will appear as a crime boss, Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) as Farrell’s sister, and the very underrated David Thewlis (Naked, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and partner of Friel) as Knightley’s business manager. All contribute to a very exciting ensemble. The film was adapted by and is being directed by William Monahan, writer of Kingdom of Heaven and The Departed. It will be his directorial debut.

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The Hollywood Reporter reports that Rhys Ifans, Chloe Sevigny and David Thewlis are in final negotiations to star in Mr. Nice, an upcoming movie from writer-director Bernard Rose.

It will be based on the 2002 best-selling autobiography by Howard Mark, having Ifans play Britan’s one time most-wanted man, a late ‘60s era Oxford graduate and teacher who turned to drug smuggling to impress his future wife Judy who will be played by Sevigny.

He had assumed an alias of “Mr. Nice” when he was recruited by a British intelligence officer for netting a loose network of informants. The criminal finally had to spend seven years in prison after smuggling over 30 tons of pot.

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