Josh Brolin is becoming the go-to guy if you need to replace your star at short notice. He pitched in to Oliver Stone's Wall Street sequel after the no-show of Javier Bardem, and he's now set to fill Sean Penn's shoes down Mexico way in Asger Leth's action drama Cartel.
Brolin's character will be the father on a mission to protect his son from dastardly Mexican drug cartels (hence the name) following the murder of his wife. Which sounds only vaguely like 1993's La Scorta, Cartel's "inspiration", which was about a group of bodyguards on a mission to protect a magistrate from dastardly Sicilian mafia types, following the murder of his predecessor.
But whatever, it sounds like it has the potential to be a classic, gritty, Western-tinged action thriller along the lines of (the original) The Getaway or (the overlooked) Way of the Gun, and should, following No Country For Old Men, further position Brolin to fulfil his true destiny as the new Warren Oates.
The script is by Peter Craig, Brian Grazer is producing, and filming starts in Mexico City in January.