Battleship hunk Taylor Kitsch has been added to the ensemble of The Grand Seduction, director Don McKellar’s English-language remake of the Canadian drama La Grand Seduction, THR reports. In related news, Seduction is doomed to fail, likely tanking at the box office and inviting both critical and communal scorn from moviegoers who seem to abhor everything Kitsch touches.
I’m joking, of course. Kitsch isn’t cursed. Well, he likely isn’t cursed, though few actors have had as bad a year as he has. Battleship and John Carter were studio-damaging disasters that bombed at the box office and were eviscerated by critics. Oliver Stone’s Savages did better – earning $43.8M to date (good for a Stone film) and decent reviews, but there’s no denying Kitsch’s rising star has been tarnished by the series of lackluster performers.
Grand Seduction could turn his fates around. For starters, the original – directed by Jean-François Pouliot -- was already a big hit in Quebec and an Audience Award winner at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. It’s not passionate, as you might assume from the title, but more the story of a tiny, broke fishing village that attempts to convince a successful doctor to take up residence in order to lure a major corporation to its zip code to build a factory and add more jobs. Kitsch would play the plastic surgeon who is wooed by the village’s residents.
Those still concerned can take comfort in knowing that the villagers will be played by Brendan Gleeson, Gorden Pinsent, Mary Walsh and Liane Balaban, all under the direction of Ken Scott. So it’s not just Kitsch. But Seduction will go a long way in determining if the Kitsch-of-death conspiracy has legs or not.
