The last time Ewan McGregor agreed to mentor a young protégé on screen, he gave birth to Darth Vader – arguably the meanest villain in silver-screen history. He’ll try to mentor yet another “kid” in an upcoming film, but it’s more of a heist than a sci-fi prequel, so our galaxy should be safe (for the time being).
McGregor has agreed to star in Son of a Gun, an Australian indie that casts the one-time Jedi as a veteran criminal – Public Enemy No. 1 for the Land Down Under – who takes a younger criminal under his wing. Variety says that Gun will mark the directorial debut of Julius Avery, who earned recognition for his short film Jerrycan, a Jury Prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival. The trade says that Gun will film in various Australian locations – including Perth and Kalgoorlie – in early 2013.
If it sounds odd for McGregor to commit to an Australian indie, consider the fact that he is coming off of a string of high-profile gigs that saw his sharing the screen with some huge talents. Earlier this year, he contributed to Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire. Before year’s end, he’ll contend with a terrifying tsunami in the breathtaking The Impossible. His co-stars for the currently prepping August: Osage County include Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. Maybe McGregor just needed to cleanse his palate with a smaller production. And maybe there’s something in Avery’s screenplay that caught McGregor’s eye. We’ll find out what spoke to him when the movie comes out, possibly by the end of 2013, if the shoot goes well.
