Back in 1997, Aaron Eckhart's credits included a TV movie, a bit part in a film called Slaughter of the Innocents, and a part in a show called Aliens in the Family. Then he was cast as the lead in Neil LaBute's In The Company of Men as Chad, an incredibly misogynistic business executive. Since then Eckhart has made himself a household name, even getting the chance to play one of the most iconic comic book villains in history, Harvey Two Face, in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. While Eckhart and LaBute kept a close working relationship for years afterward, the actor hasn't had a lead role in a LaBute film since 2002's Posession. Now he's ready to get back to his roots.
The LA Times reports that Eckhart has signed on to star in The Geography of Hope, the new film directed by Neil LaBute. In the film, Eckhart and co-star Ed Harris play two small time crooks who escape to Mexico after a botched robbery. While waiting for the heat to die down, the two men meet some American women and "find themselves torn between the impulse to grift the ladies and romance them."
Eckhart actually put on one of my favorite and one of the most overlooked male performances of last year in John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole, but this project seems to be a complete 180 degree turn in terms of tone. In The Company of Men continues to be one Eckhart's most critically lauded performances, so hopefully LaBute can get some of that flavor from him again.
