For a guy that used to bitch about writing insipid sketches on MADTV and dealing with Wesley Snipes’ rebellious behavior on BLADE: TRINITY, Patton Oswalt is not doing too badly as an actor these days.
BIG FAN gave his career a huge boost of momentum, and he’s supplemented his usual stand-up gigs, voice-work, and TV guest spots (incl. on VEEP, JUSTIFIED, and, memorably, AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.), with appearances in THE INFORMANT, YOUNG ADULT, SEEKING A FREIND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD, and THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, as well as a leading role in NATURE CALLS. Now, he’s getting called for a real, high-profile gig in a serious-minded, A-list movie…which is spectacular.
He’ll be playing one of the “Three Wise Men” in THE CIRCLE, the new James Ponsoldt movie with Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, Karen Gillan, and John Boyega. He, Hanks, and Boyega’s characters are the guys who started the company that Watson’s Mae Holland goes to work for.
The description for Patton’s Tom Stenton: a “tight-lipped, Italian suit-wearing, tough-dealing throwback to a 1980s Wall Street trader who commands respect.”
Dynamite.
BIG FAN and YOUNG ADULT showed a bittersweet side to Patton he’d only alluded to in his stage persona, but this seems like something he hasn’t really done before, and I can’t wait to see his take on this kind of corporate, self-important P.O.S.. Patton as a Gordon Gekko type? Sign me up.
I’d love it if Oswalt got his name and mug on the poster right alongside HANKS’ and WATSON’s, but I’ll settle for him just talking tough in an Italian suit over the course of a decent amount of screentime
How do folks who read the book feel about Patton as Tom Stenton?
