Over the last few months, Tony Scott has been busy putting together Potzdamer Platz, a movie very loosely based on a true story about members of a New Jersey crime family who try to expand internationally. The real story saw the mob trying to take control of the German construction industry in the 1990s, although thing have been substantially changed for the screen, with the action moving from Germany to Puerto Rico (which will inevitably result in a name change, as the title comes from when the script, which has been in development for a full decade, stuck closer to the facts).
Now Le Parisien (via The Playlist) has some casting news, and says that Mickey Rourke, Javier Bardem, Scott regular Christopher Walken and Johnny Hallyday have all been lined up for the movie, and that it starts shooting in January. There’s no mention of Jason Statham, who was previously said to be circling the film along with Rourke and Walken, although it’s not known whether that’s because he out, or if they just forgot him. Likewise it was reported a few months ago that Scott was hoping to get Al Pacino and Gene Hackman onboard, but it isn’t clear whether he’s given up on them (Hackman has retired and shown little interest in returning to the screen) or if negotiations are ongoing.
The film doesn’t shoot for a few months yet, so expect things to get cleared up long before then.