Reilly, Parker, and Mirren Join ‘Red’

Published by Jeff Leins on: November 5th, 2009

John C. Reilly, Mary-Louise Parker (”Weeds”), and Oscar winner Helen Mirren have joined the cast of Red, an espionage thriller at Summit Entertainment.  The three join Bruce Willis and Morgan Freeman already on board.

“Red” is a three-issue comic book miniseries centered on a former black ops CIA agent living a quiet life of seclusion.  His only contact with the outside world is with his former government handler and letters to his niece.  When a newly appointed Director of the CIA learns of his existence, he orders an assassination on the retired agent by a team of his best killers.

The Heat Vision Blog reports Reilly will play a retired agent who is paranoid everyone is out to kill him.  The beautiful Parker is Willis’ love interest, a federal pension worker who becomes mixed up in his struggle to stay alive.  Mirren will play an “associate of Willis with a lethal set of skills.”

Helen Mirren as a trained killer?  Sweet!  Plus MLP is not too shabby to look at and John C. Reilly could use a role where he doesn’t look (too) ridiculous.  Bruce Willis is hit or miss these days, but wielding a gun is how he belongs.  I haven’t read the comics (yet), but this sounds like a blast.

I only hope director Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Flightplan) and screenwriters Erich and Jon Hoeber (Whiteout) don’t screw this up.