There are some actors out there who are watchable in nearly everything they’re in. The two most readily accessible examples of this are John Malkovich and Gary Oldman, but it’s almost cheating to say them, as they’re legitimately two of the most talented and chameleon-like performers working today. Similarly, I could watch Walton Goggins in anything. At least, anything during and after The Shield. If he were hosting New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, I’d never miss it again. Luckily, his film career has been taking off in the last few years, and Deadline now reports he has just signed on star in the William Monahan thriller Mojave for Atlas Independent. And though he’s joining a talented young group of upcoming stars, it's hard not to predict that he's a scene stealer.
The second directorial effort from The Departed screenwriter, Mojave sounds like a challenging flick, as it tells the story of “a near-suicidal artist who escapes into the desert to take an existential crisis head-on, only to encounter a doppelgänger-like antagonist in the form of a brilliant, homicidal drifter." It sounds like quite a departure from the usual gritty reality-based fiction Monahan is more commonly known for. While the Oscar winning screenwriter's first directorial effort, 2010’s London Boulevard, wound up being a bomb at the box office, it wasn’t necessarily because of the director, and there’s no reason to think this project won’t be a thousand times better.
Goggins is joining Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) and French actress Louise Bourgoin (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec) in the film, but unfortunately there’s no telling from the report who is playing what role in the story. Goggins seems perfect for an antagonist, but I’m not sure where the doppelgänger aspect comes in.
Best known for his work as Vic Mackey’s badly-treated second fiddle Shane Vendrell on the cop drama The Shield, Goggins has become my current favorite TV antihero as Boyd Crowder on FX’s Justified, the character constantly toeing the line between humane and maniacal. He’s had a busy schedule over the last year, appearing in such widely-seen films as Lincoln, Django Unchained and G.I. Joe: Retaliation. You’ll also see him in Robert Rodriguez’s upcoming cameo-fest Machete Kills and the Craig Clevenger novel adaptation Demophoria, which is currently in post-production. He’ll soon begin production on the fifth season of Justified, and if his movie career takes a hiatus while he does that, I’m okay with it.
Mojave is currently in production in Los Angeles, and, naturally, the Mojave Desert. If you aren’t a fan of Sons of Anarchy and want to see Goggins like you’ve never seen him before, you should check out the clip below.
