It's a terrible shame that so many people missed Little Children's blink-and-you'll-miss-it run in cinemas late last year. Not only is it a tremendous piece of drama all round, but it also marked the comeback of Jackie Earle Haley.
Haley was part of the on screen ensemble at the core of Peter Yates' Breaking Away, one of the great unsung coming of age films ever, and which everyone should order online on Region 1 DVD because no-one has had the good sense to release it over here yet. Anyway, after that great performance, he pretty much fell off of the radar (although he did turn up opposite Tom Cruise in the early Curtis Hanson comedy Losin' It, and Maniac Cop 3: Badge Of Silence, video dungeon fans), until Steve Zaillian and Todd Field had the good sense to cast him in All The King's Men and Little Children respectively, the latter of which garnered him several awards and an Oscar nomination.
With all the attention from those roles, Jackie has certainly struck while the iron is at the "Ow, shit – that's still hot!" stage, and is now confirmed for three upcoming projects. The first is a role in the Will Ferrell / Will Arnett basketball comedy, Semi-Pro. Now anyone who's seen Breaking Away will realise that a sizeable (no pun intended) part of his character is the fact that he's quite diminutive in stature. Apparently though, he'll be playing a guy who wins a half-time basketball throwing competition – presumably he gets a spot on the team thereafter, but that's only our speculation for the time being.
Next will be a place on the cast of Rowan Woods' (the Australian director of The Boys and Little Fish) Winged Creatures, where Haley will appear opposite Forest Whitaker, Kate Beckinsale, Guy Pearce and Dakota Fanning as – according to our source – "an angry father and abusive husband." Then there's an interesting indie project called Bolden!, which is a biopic of New Orleans jazz man Buddy Bolden. The title role is going to Anthony Mackie, while Haley will play a crooked judge who was the lynchpin for the underground network which organised Battles Royale – the practice of drugging black men and forcing them to fight one another, while an all-white audience watched. Charming.
Do we want to go for the Jackie Earle Haley Joel Osment gag yet? No? Save it for later? Fine. Don't mind us.