Kidding! Michael Shannon was born to play oddball creepy-types, and I mean that in the best way possible. So his turn as Richard Kuklinski, the notorious contract killer from New Jersey known as The Iceman who killed for sport and for gangsters for three decades, seems fitting. Anyone else feeling curious pangs of sympathy for the Mafia hitman-slash-family man who claimed to have murdered over 100 men over the course of his "career?"
Kuklinski grew up in the Jersey suburbs with abusive parents before beating a bully to death at the age of 14; it was his first murder. His double life as loving father and husband and ice-cold killer is one of those fascinatingly true tales (read the gory details here, literally) and Shannon is one of a handful of actors who could probably pull off the dichotomy.
So I'm morbidly curious about The Iceman, even as the head shots and stabby glimpses abound in this first trailer. Shannon and his various period wiseguy hair co-star with Winona Ryder, James Franco, David Schwimmer, and Ray Liotta. Oh, also? CHRIS EVANS AS AN ICE CREAM TRUCK-DRIVING HITMAN NAMED MISTER SOFTEE.
Worth the price of admission alone, no?
Based on the book The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer, The Iceman will debut at the Venice and Toronto film fests.
[Apple]