May 11, 2012

Tradecraft: Rachel McAdams Seeks A Most Wanted Man

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes) has landed the female lead in Anton Corbijn's John le Carré adaptation A Most Wanted Man. McAdams will play German activist lawyer Annabel Richter, who works for a Hamburg charity that helps Muslim immigrants. Her latest client, Issa, has a unique claim entitling him to inherit a fortune, but it doesn't help his cause that he entered the country illegally, or that the German, American, British and Russian intelligence services believe that he's a terrorist. The strong-willed Annabel strongarms a middle-aged Scottish banker, Tommy Brue, into facilitating the inheritance, but the various spy agencies have other plans for Issa--plans that end up ensnaring the hapless Annabel and Brue as well. Annabel, meanwhile, finds herself the object of different sorts of affection from both Issa and Brue.

A little Googling reveals that apparently The Tracking Board first broke this story back in April, when McAdams was competing with Carey Mulligan and Jessica Chastain for the role. I'm a big fan of McAdams, but honestly Mulligan seems like a much better fit for the young lawyer as depicted in the novel. Oh well. Interestingly, that site reports that Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who joined this project in February, is playing Brue. When he was first cast, Deadline said it was as maverick German spy chief Günther Bachmann. I'm not sure which is correct, as he could conceivably play either role, but I think Hoffman is a better fit for Bachmann. I'm not sure who I'd cast as Brue, because all I can picture is a Russia House-era Sean Connery. It's a good part, though, and I'll be curious to see who lands it if it's not Hoffman. The Tracking Board also reported in their April article that Corbijn may be leaving the project. I really hope that's not true, because his impressive work on The American (review here) leads me to believe he'd be a good fit for the material.

No comments: