Gerard Butler: The New Sean Connery

Gerard Butler: The New Sean Connery

IGN.com

300 star tapped for Untouchables prequel.


by Stax May 18, 2007

- Hot on the heels of his success in 300, Gerard Butler's reps are making sure that not a day seems to go by without their client's name appearing in the trades. In addition to starring in the kid's fantasy adventure Nim's Island, the new Escape From New York, and the thriller Game, Butler has also been cast in Brian De Palma's The Untouchables: Capone Rising.

Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media will produce the prequel to De Palma's 1987 crime classic. Kavanaugh made the announcement Thursday at the Cannes film festival.

"Kavanaugh said Gerald Butler would topline in the Brian De Palma Untouchables prequel called Capone Rising -- and indeed the actor put in a 60-second appearance to say how 'unbelievable' the script was," according to Variety.

Butler plays Jimmy Malone, the Irish cop played by Sean Connery in the original film. (Connery won an Oscar for it.) Sean Penn and Colin Farrell had been linked to the role.

Nicolas Cage will play the younger Al Capone. The story is said to recount an earlier clash between Malone and Capone (hey, it rhymes!), although one wonders how much suspense the film can have since we know both characters have to survive.

Filming begins this fall. Paramount will release Capone Rising domestically.



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