Yesterday we got one of our first looks at “The Debt.” Today there’s more.
A remake of the 2007 Israeli film of the same name, we were pleasantly surprised when we read the script to this — it’s by writing team Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman (“Stardust”, “Kick-Ass”) and it’s certainly one of the best things they’ve written. Part thriller, part dark romantic drama, the cast is pretty high caliber, with Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas and hotly-tipped young star Jessica Chastain playing the young agents, and Ciaran Hinds, Tom Wilkinson and Helen Mirren playing their older equivalents. It’s a great role for Mirren, and we’re interested how Worthington fares away from the big-budget sci-fi that’s been his calling card so far.
The main question mark comes with John Madden, whose record in thrillers is patchy, as “Killshot” evinced. The other worry, is that it’s a Miramax holdover that sat on the shelf for a long time. Well, that question is somewhat answered now that the trailer has arrived. Utilizing Cliff Martinez’s score from Steven Soderbergh’s “Solaris,” the picture is obviously flashback laden and it looks like a surprisingly decent, if possibly conventional, thriller. It’s nice to see Marton Csokas getting some lead work too as he’s a very underrated actor.
“The Debt” has been recently slotted for a December 29, 2010 release, so maybe Disney/Miramax have slight Oscar hopes on their mind (a picture generally released that late in December usually doesn’t; the release is generally just to qualify at all).