It’s safe to say that it’s shaping up to be a very good year for Domhnall Gleeson, what with the high profile films he’s a part of. He’s in talks to add another to the list, working on a deal to join Tom Cruise in Doug Liman’s new drama, **Mena.
The title refers to Mena, Arkansas, the site of much of the action in the extraordinary life of Barry Seal, the focus of the film. Seal (the role Cruise is playing, naturally) was a pilot for TWA in the 1970s that lost his job when he was caught flying plastic explosives from Miami to Mexico for an anti-Castro group. He subsequently went solo as an aviation consultant, and began a lucrative second career smuggling cannabis and cocaine between South and North America, eventually getting entangled with the notorious Colombian Medellin Cartel.
When he was caught, he made deals with the CIA and DEA to continue his activities as an informant and spy. His adventures saw him encounter infamous names like Pablo Escobar and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez, expose political corruption in Nicaragua and have no small part in kicking off the Iran-Contra Affair. Gary Spinelli has written the script based on his spec, and Brian Grazer is producing via his Imagine Entertainment company.
There’s no word on what role Gleeson is up for, but we do know Sarah Wright will be playing Lucy Seal, Barry’s homemaker wife who is initially unaware of his illegal activities, while Jayma Mays is Dana Sibota, the foul-mouthed Assistant Attorney General of Arkansas who makes it her mission to bring Seal down.
Gleeson was most recently seen in Ex Machina and is part of romantic drama Brooklyn (due November 6), **The Revenant **(out January 15 next year) and a little film called Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which recently generated some attention and hits our screens on December 18.