It looks like Christopher Walken may be getting ready to throw on his dancing shoes once again. According to Deadline, the Oscar-winning star has become the first big name actor cast in Clint Eastwood's big screen adaptation of the musical Jersey Boys. According to the site's sources, the actor is set to play the role of Angelo "Gyp" DeCarlo, a mob boss who has ties to Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons through lead guitarist Tommy DeVito. DeCarlo helps out the boys in the band when Tommy is overburded with a ton of debt. The role was originally played by Mark Lotito on Broadway, and he continues to play the role to this day.
Eastwood has been making slow progress putting the film together, as he's been connected to the project since March, but the pieces do seem to be starting to fall into place. Last week Variety reported that the production has found its four leads in Vincent Piazza, John Lloyd Young, Erich Bergen, and Michael Lomenda, who will play DeVito, Valli, Bob Gaudio, and Nick Massi, respectively. Of the four, only Young was actually featured in the Broadway production.
It was last month when it was reported that Eastwood would be avoiding casting big name actors to star as the members of the band, but apparently Walken may only be the first on what will be a growing list. According to Deadline, the star will be the one of "several stars who’ll add some name recognition to the production." The article doesn't specify any of the names that are being considered, but there are still some big parts left to fill, including Mary Delgado (Valli's first wife), Bob Crewe (the record producer that signed the group) and even a young Joe Pesci (who was a friend of the group before making it as an actor).
Despite the fact that both Walken and Eastwood have been in the film industry for decades, this will actually be the first time that they are credited together on a project. The Deer Hunter star has been keeping very busy as of late and last year starred in both Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths (one of my favorite movies of 2012) and Yaron Zilberman's A Late Quartet. He has completed work on the upcoming Marc Turtletaub-directed, Greek myth-based comedy Gods Behaving Badly - in which he will play Zeus - and is also currently attached to the Errol Morris sci-fi dramedy Freezing People Is Easy, with Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson.
Walken has plenty of experience in his career playing both gangsters and dancing around, and below you can find videos of my favorite examples of each:
