According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jason Isaacs is the final piece of the five man tank crew in Fury, a WWII pic about an American tank that runs afoul of a German division. The picture was written and is being directed by David Ayer (End of Watch, Harsh Times). Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Pena, and Logan Lerman make up the rest of the tank crew.
Isaacs will be playing the veteran crew captain who Pitt’s character looks up to, a bit of an against-type role for the more well-known actor. Not much is known about the plot, but as Pitt still figures to play the central character, we’re betting Isaacs’ captain doesn’t have a particularly long life expectancy. We’re actually pretty excited to see Pitt in a potentially more vulnerable role; he’s rarely played a character lacking confidence, and particularly with the younger LaBeouf and Lerman present, a Pitt character who is unsure of himself could be very compelling.
Isaacs does come across as an actor who could go toe-to-toe with Pitt. In 2000 he played Mel Gibson’s primary antagonist in The Patriot before taking on the role of Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films. The presumably heroic turn in Fury is somewhat out of the ordinary for him, as in addition to the antagonistic roles above he most recently appeared as a criminal out for Sam Rockwell’s blood in A Single Shot. Isaacs will hit theaters next either in Civil War drama Field of Lost Shoes, crime thriller Things People Do, or Dawn, which tells the story of a British officer being held by Zionists in 1940s Palestine; all three pics are reportedly in post-production, but none have U.S. release dates at this time.
Bill Block (Fading Gigolo, Elysium) and his QED International are producing Fury alongside John Lesher (Blood Ties, End of Watch) and Ethan Smith (Alex Cross, Texas Killing Fields). Fury will be distributed by Sony under their Columbia Pictures banner, and is expected in theaters November 2014.