He was back on the big screen this spring playing the benevolent Professor Xavier in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. But for a new film, Patrick Stewart will be taking on something altogether more sinister.
Yes, the man who regularly delights the Twitter world by dressing up or cracking wise will be tackling one of the toughest roles of his career for Green Room, a new indie movie from Blue Ruin writer/director Jeremy Saulnier.
The film finds a punk band straying into a secluded part of the Pacific Northwest and stumbling on to a horrific act of violence. Because they’re the only witnesses, they become the targets of a terrifying gang of white power skinheads who want to make sure all the evidence is destroyed.
Stewart is playing Darcy Banker, the unflinching leader of the gang who rules his little kingdom with an iron fist. He leads a cast that also includes Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner, Mark Webber, Kai Lennox, Eric Edelstein and Macon Blair.
Saulnier is cranking the cameras now in and around Portland and the film should be on screen next year. Stewart will next be seen in more light-hearted mood in Stuck, an indie comedy about people trapped in an elevator on Christmas Eve.