With his deserved scrutiny when it comes to potential future projects, Jack Nicholson is often considered for many roles that eventually get passed along (although with his last two features in the past six years being How Do You Know and The Bucket List, we wish he was a little more finicky). Another such occurrence has popped up for an upcoming project, and it’s not a bad trade-off, as The Hollywood Reporter lets us know that Robert Downey Jr. has found a father for the new Warner Bros. dramedy The Judge.
After being courted for the project, the role of dad will not be going to Nicholson, but rather Robert Duvall, who was last seen alongside Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher. Directed by David Dobkin, who previously gave us Wedding Crashers and The Change-Up, this one sees the helmer in more serious territory and hopefully an improvement from his last high-concept feature.
Coming from a script by David Seidler (The King’s Speech), who rewrote a draft from Nick Schenk (Gran Torino), the film follows Downey, a powerful attorney who comes back home due to his mother’s passing and discovers that his estranged father is the prime murder suspect. It’s a role that Duvall could easily knock out of the park, so we’re content with this decision. If anything, this reminds us that we’re still holding out hope Nicholson can end his career on something more positive than a James L. Brooks failure.
Are you happy with Duvall grabbing the role?