Synopsis:
Congressman Stephen Collins’ (Affleck) hopes of becoming his party’s next presidential candidate are put in jeopardy when his mistress (and former research assistant) is found dead. Working a series of seemingly unrelated murders, the Congressman’s former campaign manager Cal McCaffrey (Crowe) - now an investigative journalist - finds himself tasked with solving the case. Based on the 2003 BBC mini-series of the same name.
Our Thoughts:
After his upcoming Ridley Scott pic Body Of Lies (2008), Russell Crowe will next show up in this remake of a BBC mini-series, State Of Play.
Apparently, this was originally supposed to be a re-teaming of the Fight Club duo Edward Norton and Brad Pitt originally, but disagreements over the script by Pitt and a shooting conflict with Norton lead to the Russell Crowe/Ben Affleck team-up instead.
While Norton/Pitt seem the better duo, judging from the plot synopsis, it’s hard to see either of those two in these roles. Ben Affleck seems the epitomy of a clean-cut Congressman who is embroiled in shady circumstances, while Crowe seems to be a shoo-in as a grizzled reporter tracking a murder investigation.
Let’s hope Crowe and Affleck make a good team on-screen. Of course, since Body Of Lies (2008) opens before this film, we’ll probably already know who the Crowe/Leonardo DiCaprio pariing went - and if Crowe can work well with DiCaprio, his pairing with Affleck should be a walk in the park.
Jason Bateman also pops up in this drama, but, unlike his recent role in The Kingdom, he’s playing a wackier role, described by Bateman as “a bisexual fetish club promoter” (The Times) who “wears lots of leather, likes gags and also has an OxyContin addiction,” (The Independent) so it sounds like his comedic base will be put to good use.
While the cast sounds like it’s worth seeing (aside from Affleck, Crowe and Bateman, the film also stars Jeff Daniels, Robin Wright Penn and Helen Mirren), it’s unsure if this film will be able to distinguish itself from the crowd.
Guess we’ll have to wait for the trailer before deciding on whether this one is worth going to the theaters for.
