Enjoying the award-winning success of his latest television series, The Affair, Dominic West is set to capitalize on that exposure by joining the high profile Money Monster – a dramatic thriller to be directed by Jodie Foster, for TriStar Pictures. The script for the movie comes from Alan DiFiore (The Bridge), Jim Kouf (Grimm) and Jamie Linden (10 Years), and has George Clooney pulling double duty as producer and star.
Clooney will play Lee Gates – the influential host of a stock investment television show, who gets a report wrong and causes a previously buoyant stock to plummet. An unhappy, armed investor forces his way into the studio while the show is live on air, and threatens the life of the host – demanding he undo the damage he has done and make the stock rise back to profitable levels before the closing bell.
West has joined the project as the CEO of the stricken company, who is gradually implicated in the failure of his business while hiding on his corporate airplane. Also in the cast is Julia Roberts and Jack O’Connell, who was recently named the recipient of the 2015 BAFTA Rising Star Award, following exceptional turns in recent films such as Unbroken and ’71. While unconfirmed, it could possibly be surmised that O’Connell will be playing the role of the gunman, while Roberts might perhaps play a producer on the TV show in question.
There is a great deal of potential in this film project – not least based upon the calibre of talent the script has attracted. Between Jodie Foster, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O’Connell and Dominic West, there are 270 award nominations, and 218 award wins – including five Academy Awards. Their collective body of work, both in front of, and behind the camera (Monuments Men notwithstanding) includes some of the most critically acclaimed films in recent years. The combination of those elements, with subject matter that is timely and thought-provoking, makes Money Monster something to get very excited about.
