Willis Is An Alpha Dog

After what feels like a long absence from our screens, or at least from starring roles in quality films, Bruce Willis has signed up for the Nick Cassavetes film Alpha Dog, joining a cast that includes Sharon Stone, The Girl Next Door's Emile Hirsch, Get Over It's Ben Foster, Dominique Swain and popster-recently-turned actor Justin Timberlake. The story is loosely based on the real-life tale of a thoroughly bad egg called Jesse James Hollywood (apparently, that actually is the name on his birth certificate), who became the youngest man ever on the FBI's Most Wanted list after starting a career as a drug dealer at the age of 15. By 19, he had bought his own house and sports cars, and was generally livin' it up. Things began to go wrong, however, when he turned to kidnapping and worse. Emile Hirsch is playing the Hollywood character, who will be called Johnny Truelove in the film, with Justin Timberlake as his best friend and Sharon Stone as his mother. Bruce Willis is apparently set to play his father, but in a variation on the real Jesse James, serves as a role model that his son seeks to emulate, and steps in to save his son from a life behind bars when Johnny's plans go awry. The very busy Mr Willis also has a cameo in Ocean's Twelve and roles in graphic novel adaptation Sin City, hostage drama, er, Hostage and CGI animated project Over the Hedge, where he has taken over Jim Carrey's role. If he keeps up this sort of pace, The Whole Ten Yards will soon be a distant memory.