Mad Men’s Jon Hamm Delivers a Sucker Punch
Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 19, 2009
Hot off the heels of the start of Mad Men’s third season, Jon Hamm is reaching out and touching pen to paper in hopes of finding success on the big screen. Hamm, who has found his sweet spot in the role of Don Draper, is yet to get into a groove on the silver screen, signing on to such duds as The Day the Earth Stood Still (the lame remake version) and David Wain’s abysmal The Ten. And lest we forget him as ‘Young Pilot #2′ in Space Cowboys…
It appears as if his saving grace is coming, however, as Hamm will star alongside James Franco and Mary-Louise Parker in director Rob Epstein’s Allen Ginsberg biopic Howl, which looks to be a solid entry into the 2010 release fray. And according to a report from Variety today, Hamm is going to also be getting some action in 2011 alongside the heavy-hitting female cast of Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch. His role is being kept under wraps at the moment, but his character, named ‘High Roller’, will fit somewhere into the mayhem of Snyder’s vision — a 1950s-set tale of a girl (Emily Browning) who is confined to a mental institution by her stepfather, whose plan is to see her lobotomized in five days. She and her friends enter an alternate reality where they begin planning their escape. Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish, Jamie Chung and Jena Malone will play her friends.
Without more information it is difficult to say whether or not this is a good fit for Hamm, or vice versa. It certainly is good to see Dick Whitman getting some work outside of Madison, Avenue though. I just hope that this, like his previous forays into the world of cinema, doesn’t come out the other end smelling nearly as bad as say, that movie with Keanu Reeves as the alien. That, was bad. Also — side note — kudos to Zack Snyder, who appears to be building up a solid cast for what will hopefully become a wicked shoot-em-up.
Sucker Punch is scheduled for release on March 25, 2011.
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