t’s been a big week for Michael Shannon. Just seven days ago his latest film, Premium Rush, hit theaters and earned the man heaps of critical praise for his quirky, Dick Tracy villain performance as a dirty cop; and now the trailer for his latest starring vehicle, The Iceman, has hit the net. This is big news because, oh boy, does this true telling of the life of contract killer Richard Kuklinski look like it’s going to be a doozy.
Detailing the life of a hired gun all the way from the late ’60s to the early ’80s, The Iceman doesn’t just give Shannon a chance to do that intense, conflicted, rolling sea of emotions just beneath the surface of his skin thing that he does so well, it also gives him the opportunity to experiment with all sorts of ridiculous facial hair combinations. Oh wait, and who’s that? Why, it’s Captain America himself, Chris Evans, and his sleazy Lemmy beard looks like it wants to get in on the action too.
Though not everyone in this movie is expressing themselves artistically through the medium of chin fuzz, there are plenty more exciting names rounding out the cast as well. There’s Winona Ryder as the naive wife, Ray Liotta as the cutthroat boss, and James Franco as some sort of sniveling mark. And, heck, David Schwimmer and Stephen Dorff even show up somewhere in here too, probably just long enough for Shannon to shoot them in the head. He shoots a lot of people in the head in this trailer. It’s kind of great.
The Iceman doesn’t have a distribution deal as of yet, but it’s set to play Telluride, Venice, and Toronto in the upcoming weeks, so if it’s half as cool as it looks, chances are we’ll be hearing about a proper release date soon.