For Christmas, I received Steve Martin’s book Born Standing Up, a memoir of his years as a standup comic. For someone who presented such a “wild and crazy” persona on stage and in his early films, Martin comes off in the book as very introspective and self-aware, revealing a thoughtful and highly intelligent man that those who are only familiar with his more recent family-friendly comedies may not realize. This is not news, however, to anyone who has read his writings, seen a performance of his play Picasso At The Lupin Agile or seen some of his lesser known films such as Shopgirl, based on his own novella, or David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner.
The latest thing Martin has turned his attention to is the thriller genre, having developed the story idea for the upcoming film Traitor. Martin didn’t handle the scripting of the film himself – he left that to the film’s director Jeffrey Nachmanoff, whose biggest credit is co-writer for the 2004 disaster pic The Day After Tomorrow – but is overseeing production as an executive producer.
The film stars Guy Pearce as an FBI agent whose investigation into an international conspiracy leads him to U.S. Special Operations officer Don Cheadle. The film also stars Jeff Daniels as a CIA contractor and Neal McDonough as one of Pearce’s fellow FBI agents.
Row Three has managed to land two pictures from the upcoming film. The first features Pearce as FBI agent Roy Clayton, while the second features Cheadle and Daniels.
Currently in post-production, no release date has been set yet for the film.
