Collider declared that Tommy Lee Jones is in talks to both direct and act in The Lincoln Lawyer, a film that already has McConaughey attached as the lead. I’m already seeing some nightmarish love-child of No Country for Old Men and Failure to Launch.
The Lincoln Lawyer is based on the eponymous 2005 bestselling novel by Michael Connelly and follows an attorney who runs his business out of his car (McConaughey) and through what’s sure to be a funny little twist of fate, ends up representing a well-known Hollywood playboy in a murder case that, for our lawyer, is the chance of a lifetime. Pardon my cynicism.
It just already sounds to me like we’re going to get one McConaughey playing one of three Hollywood cliches: the guy about to quit; the slacker who enjoys his professionally unimpressive life with a devil-may-care charm; or the guy who endearingly can’t catch a break no matter how hard he tries. I’ll go with #2 – for reasons to come.
McConaughey, IMO, absolutely nailed towny-cool and gave a fantastic performance in Dazed and Confused. It’s hard to imagine he won’t be charming, hence my pick in the guessing game. Jones may breathe life into the playboy, but according to the daredevils over at Risky Biz Blog, the character in the book is notably younger.
Jones has to be neck-and-neck with Morgan Freeman for the most understated gravitas in Hollywood, with the aforementioned No Country For Old Men, The Fugitive and even Men in Black as evidence to his abilities in that department. As a director, Jones brought us the critically praised, if under-the-radar The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. Other than the bongo fiasco and one of the funniest briefs to come out of The Onion in a while, the best glimpses of McConaughey on film recently are Tropic Thunder and We Are Marshall. Risky Biz Blog also says John Romano, who penned Intolerable Cruelty, wrote the script.
Ya think Jones and McConaughey will seem to be in different movies even when standing next to each other, or is this the oil and vinegar mix we didn’t know we needed?
No word on when The Lincoln Lawyer will log time in theaters.
