Though Jeremy Renner’s next film, true-life journalist tragedy **Kill The Messenger, **grabbed a boatload of actors in its last casting sweep, it still has room for more. Which explains why Ray Liotta is the latest addition to what should be a sprawling, impressive ensemble.
Kill The Messenger, which has director Michael Cuesta working from Peter Landesman’s script, is based on the true story of investigative reporter Gary Webb. Working at the San Jose Mercury News, Webb uncovered evidence of the CIA’s involvement in the spread of cocaine in Los Angeles. The stories tied the Agency to a scheme that funded Contra rebels in Nicaragua via the drug trade. His three-part series, called Dark Alliance, hit newsstands in 1996, and led to a long, vicious smear campaign against the journalist and Webb’s suicide in 2004.
Liotta is set to play a retired CIA agent who acts as a prime source for Webb as he digs the dirt about the Agency’s dark operations. He’s part of a cast that also includes Rosemarie DeWitt, Paz Vega, Michael Kenneth Williams Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Michael Sheen, Andy Garcia, Tim Blake Nelson, Robert Patrick, Barry Pepper and Oliver Platt.
Cuesta has already started the cameras rolling in Atlanta, with the film scheduled to arrive next year. Liotta, who has recently cameoed as himself in Joe Carnahan’s Stretch, will embrace the darkness that is Sin City: A Dame To Kill For and will lighten up for Muppets Most Wanted, which will be with us on March 28 next year.