Javier Bardem brought camp menace to Skyfall, and he’s looking to stay on the criminal side of things for two new movies. Bardem is signed on to J.C. Chandor’s **A Most Violent Year **and is in talks to co-star with Sean Penn in **The Gunman.
Chandor, of course, is the Margin Call director coming off Cannes success with Robert Redford sea-going drama **All Is Lost. This time around, he’ll be back in the corporate world, albeit set in the 1980s and a little more violent.
With crime and corruption running rampant in New York City, Bardem will be an ambitious business tycoon who goes to extreme lengths to control his heating oil empire. He’ll need to employ all of his sneaky, troubling tactics to outwit lawyers, bankers and teamsters. It’ll kick off shooting this autumn in NYC.
The Gunman, meanwhile – which was once called** Prone Gunman** after Jean-Patrick Manchette’s novel – has Pierre Morel directing Penn as international operative Martin Terrier. Betrayed by the people he works for, he goes into hiding and plots revenge across Europe. There’s no word on who Bardem will be playing if he hops aboard.
Bardem’s next screen gig will be as part of Ridley Scott’s The Counselor, where he’ll continue his No Country For Old Men/Skyfall tradition of wacky hair and dangerous behaviour. The film arrives on November 15.