The award-winning Broadway comedy God of Carnage (which we loved!) is being made into a movie, directed by Roman Polanski. The original NYC ensemble was excellent: Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden. Subsequent extensions of the show with different castmembers (Dylan Baker, Jimmy Smits) were all right, too, but Polanski is "going in a different direction," as they say in the biz, and has cast Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz (who won an Oscar for scenery-chewing in Inglourious Basterds), and, um, Matt Dillon.
We assume Dillon's playing Gandolfini's part, which should be adequate, and we trust Waltz will be riveting, but passing over Daniels—who was phenomenal in both male roles—seems sort of criminal. Of course, this is Polanski we're talking about. And though the play is set in Brooklyn, the shooting, which begins in February, will be in Paris, thanks to Polanski's legal issues.
