His role in the new TERMINATOR movie aside (which I think might be a fun divergence for the British actor), Christian Bale's knack for choosing interesting projects and great character roles has been second to none in recent years. He's got a career you can't really second guess and EVERY movie that he signs himself up for, I'm instantly interested in seeing straight away and I literally salivatate at the mouth with anticipation to see what he does with it. He is probably the most interesting and consistent actor working today. Variety carry some really cool news today. They say that Bale is in negotiations to join the already cast Johnny Depp in PUBLIC ENEMIES, the next movie from director Michael Mann setup at Universal which we first spoke about here.
In AMERICAN GANGSTER like style... Bale will play Melvin Purvis, the legendary FBI agent who led the manhunt for John Dillinger, the role that belongs to Depp. What's interesting about this is that Bale was previously set to star in KILLING PABLO as a
Delta Force Commander on the track of Columbian drug lord Pablo Escobar for director Joe Carnahan. With that movie looking in real trouble, maybe Bale's want to be an aggressor on the chase of a wanted man has moved on to this flick. Production is said to begin in March, so I'm guessing TERMINATOR will either be filmed before or after this flick. We shouldn't forget that this movie isn't jut about Purvis vs. Dillinger, but the gangsters Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson will also feature in this film as wanted men Bale must take down. These parts have not as yet been cast. This is going to be a big movie and there's little doubt in my mind that Universal will push PUBLIC ENEMIES as far as they can when they have seen the success of flicks like AMERICAN GANGSTER and THE DEPARTED over the last two years. Bale/Depp/Mann. Three cats who have never worked together before but by God... what a trio. I can't wait to see Batman and Sweeney Todd face off against each other!
