‘Knockout’ Recruits Tatum, Banderas, Angarano

Channing Tatum and Antonio Banderas are the latest actors in discussions to join Steven Soderbergh’s star-studded spy film, Knockout.

Update: The Hollywood Reporter has added Michael Angarano to the growing list of actors.

Ewan McGregor, Michael Douglas, Dennis Quaid, and Michael Fassbender were added last week, the big names Soderbergh promised when he announced former American Gladiator and MMA fighter Gina Carano as the lead.

The Playlist has been all over Soderbergh’s latest project and brings us these casting tidbits.  Tatum will play Aaron, a soldier in an elite covert squad sent to bring Carano back when she goes rogue in an attempt to uncover who set her up.

McGregor will serve as the owner of an American Blackwater-type black ops team that includes Carano, Fassbender, and now Tatum.  Quaid plays Carano’s father in the film and Douglas plays a government type.  Banderas, a late addition to the production scheduled to shoot next month, will play the leader of a similar, European team.  Angarano plays a teen who sees Carano in trouble and winds up becoming her partner.

I’m still not convinced on Channing Tatum, even if he was hired for the physicality of the fight scenes and not his acting ability.  Hollywood seems to be pushing him in every pretty-boy-but-really-a-tough-guy role (sometimes literally), only he has yet to prove himself as anything more than a chiseled face and a wooden performer.  Try as they might, Tatum is not the next big action hero.

As for Banderas, it’s been a long time coming.  He’s been lounging in Spy Kids/Shrek territory for far too long.