If you’re looking for a seasoned, grizzled and consistently acclaimed talent to headline a hard-boiled crime thriller, then you can’t do much better than Benicio del Toro. For over a quarter of a century, the Academy Award winner has gained a reputation for showing up in the sandbox of cops and robbers to deliver some of the best work of an illustrious career.
Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects, Steven Soberbergh’s Traffic and No Sudden Move, Christoper McQuarrie’s The Way of the Gun, Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, Oliver Stone’s Savages, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice and Denis Villenueve’s Sicario all see the actor partnering up with one of the industry’s best-known filmmakers, but for his latest effort del Toro is working with a first-timer.
Netflix have acquired the rights to Reptile, which marks the feature directorial debut of music video veteran Grant Singer, who’ll be working from a script by Benjamin Brewer. The plot follows a hardened veteran detective attempting to uncover the truth behind the brutal murder of a young real estate agent. Not only is nothing as straightforward as it seems, but the cop is also forced to reckon with the hard truths of his own life.
Justin Timberlake will take second billing behind del Toro in the project, and while the setup sounds fairly rote by the standards of the crime film, the Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universe alum’s track record in the crime genre can’t be argued with, so at the very least we’re guaranteed another stellar central performance.
