Academy Award-winning actress Cate Blanchett has just signed on to star as the lead in the upcoming Blackbird by David Mamet. Described by Mamet as a Hitchcockian thriller, Blackbird will center around an alternative explanation for the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Blanchett will play the role of Janet, who travels to Los Angeles for her grandfather’s funeral. In L.A., Janet learns her grandfather, a Hollywood visual effects artist, had also worked undercover for the U.S. government and had been keeping secrets about Kennedy’s death. Her life soon comes under threat as she goes on a journey to uncover the truth.
Not only written, but also directed by David Mamet (Pulitzer Prize-winner for “Glengarry Glen Ross” and author of “American Buffalo”), Blackbird is promises to be a nail-biter with many twisting and ticking thrills. Mamet’s work could be seen earlier this year in HBO’s moderately-received Phil Spector starring Al Pacino and Helen Mirren, but Blackbird will be Mamet’s first theatrical release since 2008’s martial arts drama Redbelt. Though Mamet has traditionally been able to attract big names to his projects, his films have often been met with mixed results and fair poor box office numbers. With a high-end conspiracy premise and the attachment of Blanchett, Blackbird will hopefully capture some of the success of Mamet’s earlier work, such as 1997’s Wag the Dog.
For Blanchett, audiences do not have to worry about her absence from the big screen any time soon. Completed projects include Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, Terrence Malick’s Knight Of Cups, and The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug out on December 13. Additionally, Blanchett is currently at work on Carol, an adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel, George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, co-starring Matt Damon and Bill Murray, and has been cast as the evil stepmother in the Kenneth Branagh-directed Cinderella.
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