Celebrated character actor Sam Rockwell has practically built a career out of playing oddballs who finagle strange ways to make a buck. In Confessions of a Dangerous Mind he was a game show creator by day and assassin by night, in Matchstick Men a smirking con artist, and Choke he played a sex addict who scored cash by tricking others into believing they'd saved his life. With the upcoming Seven Psychopaths, Rockwell adds Billy to this roster, a man with a peculiar fashion sense, bad instincts and a business model that involves kidnapping and ransoming dogs.
But written and directed by In Bruges filmmaker Martin McDonagh, Billy's plan goes wildly awry when he and his partner Hans (Christopher Walken) abduct a Shih Tzu that is the beloved pet of a merciless gangster Charlie (Woody Harrelson). In Bruges star Colin Farrell reteams with McDonagh to play Billy's best friend Marty, a screenwriter who gets caught in the cross hairs of his pal's dangerous scheme. Tom Waits, Quantum of Solace's Olga Kurylenko, Abbie Cornish and Precious's Gabourey Sidibe also co-star, and each get some screentime below in Seven Psychopaths' first trailer, which helpfully counts down its titular lunatics.
Beyond being an up-and-coming filmmaker, McDonagh is an established and heralded playwright. And as someone whose had the good fortune to watch a stage production of The Pillowman as well as the Broadway production of his Behanding in Spokane, which notable starred Walken and Rockwell, I can't wait to see what this master of macabre humor has in store here. But having also seen his Oscar-winning short Six Shooter, I'm going to guess that bunny Tom Waits has got may not be safe from this movie's mayhem.
Seven Psychopaths hits theaters October 12th.
