Last we heard, the Wachowski siblings’ sure-to-be-controversial, hard-R gay romance Iraq-War movie was called, “CN9.”
Now we know that stands for “Cobalt Neural 9.” According to Deadline, the filmmakers are meeting with actors now, but are being so secretive about the project, they’re not even showing actors the script. Makes for a pretty strange audition we’re sure and maybe Christopher Nolan is envious about these paranoid levels of security.
Interestingly, we found this random tweet in Google that reads, “COBALT NEUTRAL 9 : worst screenplay ever! Thanks to its writers who made me waste a LOT of time.” It’s from Charles Touboul, whose location is in Paris, France. And according to his linked in page, he’s a Creative Executive at Gaumont and was once an acquisition executive at Canal +. Same script? We can only imagine that it is? Who knows, but that tweet is from May of this year.
The Deadline story doesn’t reveal too many other details. No actors are named and the piece says this growing security tactic is changing the game for Hollywood since scripts always leak and therefore details get out there (not always, no “Inception” script has leaked yet and the movie’s out there obviously).
So who is going to star in this taboo picture? Well, it’s about an American solider who falls in love with an Iraqi, so that should tell you at least something about the two male leads’ needed ethnicity’s (or ethnic look anyhow). Can we suggest Israeli actor Ashraf Barhom (“Lebanon,” “Clash of The Titans,” “The Kingdom”), who is dark-olive skinned and could probably pass as an Iraqi easily (we hope that doesn’t offend, he’s a great actor and looks Middle-Eastern is all we’re saying). It’s also been described as a cinema verite-style treatment that begins in the near future and then spans back over years that include the current war in Iraq.