Sam Rockwell Joining Brad Pitt In ‘Cogan’s Trade’

The last time Sam Rockwell and Brad Pitt starred in a movie together, the latter was a world-weary Missouri outlaw whose demise was imminent. Now Pitt will appear alongside Rockwell as a merciless Mob law enforcer in the Noirish crime pic, Cogan’s Trade.

Rockwell has officially joined the cast of Pitt’s upcoming venture, which will also reunite the pair with writer/director of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Andrew Dominik.

Pitt will star in Cogan’s Trade as Jackie Cogan, a professional thug who makes certain the Mob’s rules of operation are never broken – and kills anyone who dares violate them. When a heist occurs during a high-stakes card game under the protection of the Mob, Cogan must navigate Boston’s underworld of mobsters, crooks, and corrupt politicians in order to set things right with his superiors. But that task is easier said than done and leads the ruthless but efficient Cogan down a dangerous and violent path.

Deadline has indicated that it’s still possible that Casey Affleck will join his Assassination of Jesse James costars for Cogan’s Trade, which isn’t expected to reach theaters until 2012. Pitt meanwhile will appear in two vastly different films – Tree of Life and Moneyball – in 2011, while Sam Rockwell donned cowboy gear again to appear in this summer’s sci-fi/western mashup, Cowboys & Aliens.

Cogan sounds like a character right up Pitt’s alley – physically intimidating, armed with a droll wit and able to be a stone-faced professional when necessary. The solid source material by author George V. Higgins and involvement of Dominik behind the camera certainly assure that Cogan’s Trade will be far superior to Pitt’s last outing as an investigator and authority in a dark underworld of crime and chaos, a.k.a. Cool World. The less said about that flick, the better.

Assassination of Jesse James barely made a dent at the box office, but it was a critical success and garnered loads of acclaim for the performances of both Pitt and (especially) Affleck, while Dominik was credited for crafting a somberly atmospheric western that further benefitted from picturesque visuals and cinematography by Roger Deakins (True Grit). That Cogan’s Trade could possibly feature three of the main stars (including Rockwell) from the tale of Jesse James and the filmmaker responsible for it, certainly bodes well for this latest film.

We’ll keep you posted on the development of Cogan’s Trade as more information comes our way.

Source: Deadline