Paul W.S. Anderson is the worst. We’re pretty sure we’d rather sit through the absolute dregs from the careers of McG, Brett Ratner and Michael Bay (OK, maybe not “Transformers 2”) than sit through the best from Anderson’s oeuvre, if you can call it that. From his dreadful debut “Shopping” through to 2008’s super-derivative “Death Race,” there’s been almost nothing to be found of any value in his work, other than some neat production design in “Event Horizon.” But we have to admit he’s assembling a decent cast for his next film, “The Three Musketeers.”
The 3D version of the classic tale, which is going head-to-head with Warner Bros’ bigger budget Doug Liman-directed version, already features Logan Lerman as D’Artagnan, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans and Matthew Macfayden as the Musketeers, Christoph Waltz, Mads Mikkelsen and potentially Orlando Bloom as the villains, and Milla Jovovich, the director’s wife and muse, as Evans’ love interest.
Now, Juno Temple, the British-born star of “Atonement,” “Year One” and most recently “Greenberg” is close to signing on as the Queen of France and, we’d wager, D’Artagnan’s love interest. The actress, who’s the daughter of documentary director Julien Temple (“The Filth & The Fury,” “Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten”), is in demand at the moment, filming the indies “Dirty Girl,” “Goodnight Moon” and “Jack & Diane” in quick succession.
Like we said, we like most of these actors, Bloom and Jovovich aside; we just wish they were doing anything other than working with Anderson. Like Anderson’s next film “Resident Evil: Afterlife,” this film will be shot in 3D, and should demonstrate the same sensitive, subtle hand for 3D composition that the trailer for “Resident Evil” suggests. Oh, wait, it’ll be two hours of things being thrown at the camera.