After a few years of the film sitting in development, Liam Neeson is finally hard at work on Marlowe, in which he's playing Raymond Chandler's iconic detective. We now know the names who will be surrounding him in the film, led by Daniela Melchior and François Arnaud.
The Departed's William Monahan wrote the script, adapting a Marlowe story that wasn't actually written by Chandler, but instead featured in Benjamin Black's 2014 novel The Black-Eyed Blonde. Set in the early 1950s, the plot finds private detective Marlowe as restless and lonely as ever, and concerned that business is slow. But then a beautiful blonde client sashays into his office and asks him to find her ex-lover. Naturally, the case soon turns into something much more serious, involving one of the more powerful families in the city willing to do anything to protect their fortune. Neil Jordan is calling the shots right now, with filming scheduled for Ireland and Spain.
Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alan Cumming, Danny Huston, Ian Hart and Colm Meaney are also all in the cast. Kruger is set to play the role of Clare Cavendish, the femme-fatale who jump-starts the plot by hiring Neeson’s Marlowe the plot. Oscar-winner Jessica Lange will be playing Kruger’s mother, the notorious and charming Dorothy Cavendish. Hart will be playing detective Joe Green.
Meaney is playing Bernie Ohls, the DA’s investigator, and who is a recurring character in the original Philip Marlowe detective stories. Huston will play the country club manager, Floyd Hanson. Akinnuoye will play Cedric, the right-hand man to the sharply dressed gangster Lou Hendricks, played by Cumming. Melchoir and Arnaud, meanwhile, are a brother and sister pair, Lynn and Nico Peterson.
Will Philip Marlowe have a particular set of skills beyond his wits? We can only wonder...