Robert Redford is keeping the quality level high in regards to the actors he’s adding to his latest thriller The Company you Keep: the director/star has now hired Brendan Gleeson, Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick and Sam Elliott.
Company, adapted by Lem Dobbs from Neil Gordon’s novel, will see Redford as Jim Grant, a former member of US domestic protest/terrorist organisation the Weather Underground. Having been in hiding for 30 years as a target of the FBI following a bank robbery, he’s forced to surface and go on the run when an ambitious young reporter (Shia LaBeouf) cracks his true identity.
Kendrick’s signed to play Diana, LaBeouf’s ex who gives him the first details about Grant’s name and his involvement with the robbery. Gleeson will play Henry Osborne, a retired chief of police who investigated it in the ‘60s. Howard is Cornelius, the biggest thorn in Grant’s side and the head of the FBI taskforce looking to hunt down the remaining Weather Underground members. Elliott will work alongside Julie Christie, playing her boss in the marijuana trade.
Given that the cast already included Brit Marling, Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Richard Jenkins, Stephen Root, Stanley Tucci and Chris Cooper, it’s not a stretch to say that Redford has an embarrassment of character acting riches. He’s busy shooting the movie in Vancouver.