William Fichtner, Reigning King Of The Indies, Joins Blomkamp's ELYSIUM And Dupieux's WRONG

The idea of Quentin Dupieux - director of killer tire movie Rubber - making a comedy titled Wrong makes me giggle a little. That he's in negotiations with William Fichtner to take the lead turns the giggle into a delighted laugh and spontaneous applause.

Though Drive Angry flopped at the box office - sad, because it's a blast - the veteran character actor's brilliant turn as The Accountant has clearly not gone unnoticed as Fichtner has just landed - or is in the process of landing - roles in two of the most high profile indies of the coming year.

Yesterday word broke that Fichtner had been added to the cast of Neill Blomkamp's Elysium, the scifi spectacle that already boasts Matt Damon, Sharlto Copley and Jodie Foster in the cast. Clearly Fichtner will be taking a support role in this one, and despite knowing nothing about the secretive project I can't help but imagine him in a part something along the lines of Bill Paxton in Aliens. Though I'm a little uneasy about Foster in this thing the cast of Elysium is otherwise shaping up pretty brilliantly, I think, and Fichtner brings an interesting new wrinkle.

Today that word has been followed with the news that Fichtner is in negotiations to take the lead of Wrong, the sure to be much smaller budgeted new film from Rubber's Quentin Dupieux. And with Rubber proving to be one of the cult titles of the year and Fichtner's ultra dry sense of humor and unhinged charisma seeming to be a perfect fit for Dupieux's bizarre worlds, this could be brilliant. All that Dupieux is saying about that one so far is that it revolves around a missing dog and its owner. I presume that Fichtner is being cast as the owner but with Dupieux ... well ... there's a fighting chance he could be the dog, too.