Caffeinated Clint
‘80s icon turned bravura filmmaker Emilio Estevez (“Bobby”, “The Way”) has recruited fellow Reagan-era fave Alec Baldwin for his newest flick.
Titled “The Public”, the socially conscious ensemble drama is currently in preproduction with filming set to kick off in Cincinnati mid next-month.
Baldwin, who like Estevez got his start as a matinée idol in the 1980s, will star alongside Taylor Schilling, Jena Malone and musician Che “Rhymefest” Smith in the flick. Also onboard as a performer, Estevez – no surprise being that he’s performed in every other thing he’s directed.
Per Deadline, “The Public” centers around a standoff with police and library officials during a brutal, life-threatening cold snap. Staging an Occupy-style sit-in, library patrons — many of whom are homeless and mentally ill — turn the Cincinnati Public Library into an impromptu shelter for one night. Drawing from the current political climate, the film strives to give equal voice to both sides as it examines the question of who will care for those who are unable to care for themselves?
Estevez, who has been developing family horse-racing film “Johnny Longshot” for the past couple of years, has cast Baldwin as a crisis negotiator attempting to de-escalate the standoff, Estevez and Malone play librarians caught up in the crisis, Schilling will play a character who helps expose the truth as a corrupt media spins the story for ratings, and Smith portrays one of the homeless Occupy patrons.
The “Young Guns” star wrote the script.
He’s a bloody good actor – go and revisit “The Breakfast Club”, “The War at Home”, “Young Guns”, “Stakeout”, if even to witness the thesp’s versatility – but as a filmmaker, Estevez is equally right at home. Looking forward to this next one.
