James Thoo at JoBlo.com was brushing up on his Bulgarian news and stumbled upon a story at iBox.bg saying Colin Farrell will be starring with Ed Harris in The Way Back for Peter Weir (The Truman Show). The film is based on “The Long Walk: the true story of a path to freedom”, a book by Slavomir Ravich which was first published in 1956 and tells the account of a young Polish cavalry officer who was arrested by the Russians, tortured and sentenced to 25 years forced labour. Describes his 3 month journey from Moscow to the prison camp in Siberia, his escape with 6 companions and their journey across the Gobi desert to Tibet and freedom.
A lot of people have been talking about Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke this year as they have made impressive comebacks with Iron Man and The Wrestler, but for some reason little to nothing has been mentioned of Colin Farrell who entered rehab in 2005 after completing Miami Vice, after which he starred in Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dream, but even more importantly Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges. While Cassandra’s Dream wasn’t that good Farrell was good in it, In Bruges has since been nominated for three Golden Globe awards, including one for Farrell.
If you ask me, Farrell’s comeback is more impressive since Downey’s involved a superhero film (not to mention Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang in 2005) and a successful comedy turn in Tropic Thunder, which only made $110 million on a $92 million budget as it seemed to be a bigger hit with followers of the industry than the actual general audience. Rourke’s return isn’t exactly proven yet as he has been known to self-destruct in the past, and on a major level.
I am personally a fan of all three actors, but simply think Farrell’s contributions have been overlooked. Hopefully he will continue to work on great projects and no more of this Pride and Glory business. Here’s an interview with him from the BBC’s “Friday Night with Jonathan Ross” which aired in October in which he talks openly about his rehab. In which he says, “I began to come out of the haze that I was in and had burrowed myself into so deeply… Basically, I’d been fairly drunk or high since I was 14. I was very drunk and high for 16 years so it was a tough life change, and I was dying. I’m one of the lucky ones.”
