Screen Daily has learned that Brendan Gleeson has been tapped for the lead role in MR. CRANKY, a crime comedy from director Jonathan Teplitzky (THE RAILWAY MAN, BURNING MAN). Teplitzky will direct the film from a script by his GETTIN' SQUARE scribe Chris Nyst. Additional casting is underway, and filming is set to take place in Melbourne and on the Gold Coast, Australia, in September of this year.
When a gangland war erupts thanks to crime boss Kevin Darcy’s (Gleeson) short temper, his ex-girlfriend becomes the victim of a car bomb intended for him, and he finds himself saddled with her seven-year-old daughter. More used to putting people to sleep with his fists than bed time stories, it would seem Kevin has finally met his match in the precocious Angela who’s quick to enforce her own rules on clean language. Against the odds whilst lying low on the glitzy Gold Coast, the unlikely pair soon form a bond to rival any father daughter relationship, with a little help from Candy, an under qualified nanny.
However, trouble has a way of finding Kevin and it’s not long until he’s being pursued by a drug-dealing circus clown, Lebanese hitmen, a gang of Hells Angels and the long arm of the law, all the while becoming a better father and a better man.
Doesn't this sound like the perfect type of project for the IN BRUGES and CALVARY star? Personally I think Gleeson is one of the most underrated actors working today, and I'm definitely more than a little interested in checking out MR. CRANKY.
Gleeson has a number of movies opening this year, including Matthew McConaughey's Civil War drama THE FREE STATE OF JONES on May 13th, and Justin Kurzel's ASSASSIN'S CREED on December 21st.
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