Brian De Palma teams up with Christina Hendricks in new crime thriller

Brian de Palma picked up his first project in years, and it will star Christina Hendricks of Mad Men fame.

Brian De Palma’s newest gig is a screenplay coming from Petter Skavland (Kon-Tiki), and it’s described by Collider as an “international crime thriller” titled Domino. No, not like the 2005 Tony Scott film starring Keira Knightley. This is something a little more sophisticated. And it’s starring Christina Hendricks, who frankly has been underused as a big-screen leading lady. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) will also co-star.

De Palma hasn’t worked on anything since the release of his last film, Passion, in 2012.  That film was a little bit of a dud compared to De Palma’s earlier work, which includes Scarface, The Untouchables, and Mission: Impossible. Den of Geek mentioned that he has something on his IMDb called Lights Out, but who knows if that will precede or follow Domino. 

Similarly, Hendricks hasn’t really seen a lot of success since Mad Men ended. In spite of being a tour-de-force actor and a total bombshell, she’s been handed supporting roles in films like Drive, Fist Fight and Bad Santa 2 (woof). Hendricks deserves so much better. Even in Drive she seemed miscast and too powerful for such a small and incidental role.

The Hollywood Reporter released this breakdown of Domino’s plot:

"The story follows a Copenhagen police officer (Coster Waldau) who is seeking justice for his partner’s murder by a mysterious man called Imran. He teams up with a fellow cop and his late partner’s mistress (Hendricks), to hunt Imran down, but are unwittingly caught in a cat and mouse chase with a duplicitous CIA agent that will take them from Scandinavia to the sun-drenched landscapes of Spain."

This sounds about right. De Palma’s forte has always been intense, boiled-down crime stories. I’m not super excited that Hendricks has still been a little pigeon-holed into a “mistress” role, but at least she’s also an authority figure who hopefully De Palma lets stand on her own. Hendricks is naturally very authoritative, that’s what made her so effective in her Mad Men role, but she has suffered from some sexist casting in the past, especially in the aforementioned features.

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This is an exciting announcement for cinephiles and TV fans alike, and the combination of De Palma, Hendricks, and even Coster-Waldau sounds killer. Let’s hope this film delivers. Production for Domino is slated to begin this summer.