I want to say that Michael Mann's Public Enemies cannot possibly get any better -- but this could be one of those movies where so much awesome has come together that the universe must destroy it in order to keep us all in balance.The Hollywood Reporter has announced that David Wenham and Stephen Graham have joined the cast -- which is led by Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, and Christian Bale as the famed FBI Agent, Melvin Purvis, who hunted him down. These two actors can do no wrong, and it is going to be a lot of fun watching them go head to head.
Wenham, who was last seen as Dilios in 300, will be playing Pete Pierpont, a member of Dillinger's gang who is violently opposed to authority. Graham will be playing the famous gangster, Baby Face Nelson. They round out Dillinger's gang, which already includes Marion Cotillard, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Dorff, and John Ortiz. (Is the Reporter a misprint, by the way? Wikipedia lists a Henry Pierpont in Dillinger's gang, not a Pete.)
I'm very excited by the addition of Wenham, who is largely known to American audiences for noble, heroic characters like Dilios and Faramir in Lord of the Rings. But he has quite a reputation in his native Australia for playing dark and sadistic characters, and it's about time he finally got a chance to show off that nasty side to a wider audience Hopefully, he'll get the chance to actually play off Depp, rather than just be background color and shoved to the sidelines by so many big names.
1. Graham plays Baby Face Nelson, see the Hollywood Reporter story.
Posted at 11:43AM on Feb 24th 2008 by vermontfudge