Like a giant planet generating a huge gravitational field, the one-two punch of a Cormac McCarthy script and Ridley Scott directing **The Counsellor **is drawing people in with increasing speed. The latest to enter the film’s orbit? Penelope Cruz, who is in talks to snatch a key role.
Michael Fassbender, who has just worked with Scott on Prometheus, is already locked in to star as a lawyer working along the Mexican border. Though he’s essentially an honest man, he decides to turn to criminal means when he needs money. But his idea – to dabble in the cocaine trade – doesn’t go quite as well as he might have hoped.
He drags along a rich friend (Javier Bardem) and they meet with a shady type (Brad Pitt), which in turn leads to things going badly, bloodily wrong.
There’s some debate as to which character Cruz is interested in, be it femme fatale Malkina or Fassbender’s fiancée, Laura. But either way, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that she signs on. If she does, the film will mark her eighth time working with husband Bardem.
She’s not the only partner of someone already in the film flirting with participating: last week saw word that Angelina Jolie is considering taking on one of the smaller roles in the movie.
**The Counsellor **is scheduled to start shooting in June. At the rate it's going, the entire A-list will be aboard by then.