In what has to be the B-est of B-list casts assembled since, oh, we don’t know, maybe “Rock N Roll Confessions” (see here), Andy Garcia, Mario Van Peebles, Luke Goss and Aidan Quinn have been announced for “The Exodus of Charlie Wright”, the first directorial feature from writer/producer R. Ellis Frazier. Reportedly an “indie crime drama” according to The Hollywood Reporter — though it sounds like “Smokin’ Aces” to us — the plot follows Quinn (a man who can look both puffy and haggard simultaneously) as the titular Charlie who flees to Tijuana after it is revealed his financial whizzery was nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, which is super topical because it’s probably only in the last two years or so that any of us have learnt what a Ponzi scheme is. Anyway, in the bit that’s clearly the ‘indie’ part, Los Angeles billionaire Charlie runs away and tries to find the woman he abandoned twenty years previously, but, in the bit that really isn’t, he’s pursued by insert-ethnicity-here Garcia as a Mexican gangster, Van Peebles as an FBI agent, and Luke Goss as a heavy sent by a former client of Charlie’s to retrieve the money he lost.
Director Frazier clearly bought a tract of land in the middle of B-territory some time ago and is currently building his dream house there: his previous writing and producing credits are “La Linea” with Ray Liotta, Garcia again, quality hallmarks Armand Assante and Danny Trejo, and “Confessions of a Pit Fighter” with Assante again, James Russo and… Flavor Flav.
Quinn will next be seen in “Jonah Hex” (regular readers will know our forebodings, for everyone else, well, we’ve got forebodings); Van Peebles is set to appear in and direct “Things Fall Apart,” co-written and starring Curtis “50 Cent” “Fiddy” Jackson; Garcia will turn up in Renny Harlin’s “Georgia”; and Goss (we’re completists) can be found in “Death Race: Frankenstein Lives” – which is probably the first and last time you’ll see that film mentioned on these hallowed pages.
It’s easy to be snarky about a film like this (so we are), but occasionally highlighting a project that didn’t cross Chris Nolan or Leonardo di Caprio’s desk, makes us think of the thousands of actors who had a moment some time ago, and who still get work, it’s just this sort of work. And everyone knows, a single solitary fleeting thought for the Quinns and Garcias of the world, though it be just a drop in the zeitgeist, is all that’s needed to keep their careers alive — even if that means having to stare at each other across the screen in “The Exodus of Charlie Wright” wondering how they had it all but lost it all, while van Peebles negotiates his next regular TV slot and Luke Goss cavorts in the background, delighted to be invited to this, or any, party.
But, you know, maybe it’ll be brilliant.