Tradecraft: Red Menace

Each time we heard about a new cast member joining the Bruce Willis spy thriller Red, we got the same logline: a retired covert operative (Willis) is lured back into action when a younger, more high-tech assassin comes gunning for him.  But everyone they cast was old (Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfuss, Brian Cox, Ernest Borgnine), so I kept wondering who could be playing the young assassin of the premise?  Well, thanks to The Hollywood Reporter, now we know: Karl Urban.  "Urban will play the CIA's top cleaner, the youthful counterpart of Bruce Willis' grizzled former agent," says the trade.  Great choice!  I've been a fan of Urban's since his Xena days, and I keep waiting for Hollywood to see his star potential.  Sadly that has yet to happen (although he always shines in supporting heroic roles, as in Star Trek and The Lord of the Rings), and he keeps getting villainous roles instead.  But he's good at that too.  He was already great playing the hotshot young assassin gunning for the hero in The Bourne Supremacy; let's just hope he gets more screentime playing that role in Red.  Red is based on a comic book by Warren Ellis.  I haven't read it, but Ellis is usually good.  I definitely have high hopes for this one!