For awhile there I thought Barry Pepper's career had hit a massive cement wall. A cement wall that had Battlefield: Earth written on one side, and Knockaround Guys on the other. After scoring major raves for playing the deadeye marksman in Saving Private Ryan, and appearing in The Green Mile, Pepper seemed poised for greatness. While I'm not sure he'll ever truly be an A-list actor, he's proven to be one of the most versatile actors in the business, capable of playing Robert F. Kennedy(and winning an Emmy for it), Dale Earnhardt, and Roger Maris while making them all believable. He's absolutely terrific in Spike Lee's 25th Hour.
He's been pretty quiet on the big screen in 2011, but the next couple of years are looking jam packed. Not only does he have a role in one of Terrence Malick's upcoming projects, but he's still in negotiations to join Johnny Depp in The Lone Ranger. And now you can add two more major films to his calendar as well.
Pepper will join Broken City, the noirish thriller from Allen Hughes(Menace II Society). Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, and Catherine Zeta-Jones star in the story about a washed up ex-cop hired by a politician to investigate his wife's infidelity, but instead discovers a deeper scandal. Pepper will play a councilman with his own dark secrets who happens to be running against Crowe's character.
That film will be shooting in New Orleans, which means he can probably catch a cab over to where they'll be shooting Snitch, the second film Pepper has signed on to. Directed Ric Roman Waugh(Felon), the film centers on a father(Dwayne Johnson) who goes undercover for the DEA in order to get evidence against a drug dealer in an attempt to free his son from prison. Pepper will play the agent Johnson's working for. Susan Sarandon co-stars, with a script provided by Justin Haythe, who also worked on the Lone Ranger draft. [Variety]
