After such a long stint as Tony Soprano on HBO, James Gandolfini isn’t the first guy you’d typecast as “upstanding moral citizen.” But hey, after Eliot Spitzer, how can you tell who an upstanding moral citizen is anyway? Maybe that’s why Gandolfini’s latest role seems so perfect—he’ll play a harried New York City mayor in Tony Scott’s remake of Taking of Pelham 1,2,3. Variety reports that the mayor is under extraordinary pressure when a criminal (John Travolta) takes a crowded subway car hostage. Denzel Washington plays a cop trying to stop the crime.
Tony Scott has never quite gotten the same acclaim that his brother Ridley has, but he’s made some good action movies in his day (do you need to hear anything other than Top Gun?) And he’s got a great cast for this. Despite John Travolta’s other sins, you’ve gotta admit he made a great bad guy in Face/Off. And despite anything else Denzel Washington has ever done, we always want to see him play the enterprising good guy.
I know James Gandolfini is probably trying to avoid getting typecast as a mobster, so this seems like a good next step for him. Pelham sounds like an exciting crime movie, and hey, in a crisis, I’m totally fine with Tony Soprano being in charge.
