For years now, I’ve been whining about Gary Oldman not being the lead in most of his movies lately. There was a time in the late-80s to the mid-90s that when a movie was released with him in it, it was Gary Oldman’s face on all of the marketing, whether for his breakout roles in Sid & Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears, his brilliant comedic turn in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, or as the title character in Coppola’s Dracula. Since, he’s been perfectly content with standing out of the spotlight, and he has certainly shined in his supporting roles (many would argue he is the best parts of his mid-nineties supporting movies: Leon, The Fifth Element, and True Romance – all of which I agree with).
From about ’98 to ’04, Oldman almost fell off the Hollywood radar completely, save his Oscar-shunned performance in 2000′s The Contender, and he was subjected to doing a few episodes of Friends and a pair of embarrassing straight-to-DVD action flicks. Of course, it was the Harry Potter franchise and Batman Begins that resurrected his career, but even since, he has shied away from the responsibilities of first billing, with the excellent (and mostly unseen) Backwoods being the only exception.
This was all a long way of saying that I just discovered he will be playing the lead role in a historical pic titled Easter Sixteen, about the 1916 Irish uprising and the role that James Connolly played in it. Anyone that saw The Wind that Shakes the Barley or Liam Neeson’s Michael Collins knows that this is an era in Ireland’s history that is rich with stories and James Connolly’s is no exception (and one of the most famous), as he helped lead an important part of the Irish uprising against the British.
Oldman, of course, will be playing Connolly, with Guy Pearce, Anthony LaPaglia, Ian Hart, and Chris O’Donnell also rounding out the cast, as well as Jason Barry who will also be taking on directing duties. It’s about time we see him being the face of a movie again. He could be the finest British actor living today and it’d be a shame if the young generation today only knew him as Sirius Black and Lt. Gordon.
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