Update: According to Deadline, indie darling Mark Duplass has also booked a role in the project as, campaign advisor and friend to John F. Kennedy, Kenny O’Donnell. He’ll also appear in the upcoming Stephen King adaptation Mercy. Check out the original story below.
With only three feature-film appearances under his belt — Cheaper by the Dozen, Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and The Fog — I feel pretty justified in claiming that longtime Smallville star Tom Welling hasn’t yet made much of an impact on the big screen. A new casting report a massive step forward on his own part, having landed a co-starring role in Parkland, the Tom Hanks-produced JFK-assassination drama that Open Road just picked up the other day. (There’s hope of releasing it close to the event’s 50th anniversary in November 2013.)
Though Peter Landesman, the writer-director of Parkland, has a very limited cinematic résumé, he’s nevertheless been gifted with a marvelous cast for the film. James Badge Dale (coming off two remarkable bit-part performances last year), Zac Efron, Paul Giamatti, Jackie Earle Haley, Marcia Gay Harden, Billy Bob Thornton, and recent Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver are but a sampling of the names Welling will act alongside. Sounds like a far cry from Cheaper to the Dozen to me, but the exposure should do nothing but good things for Welling and his prospective future in the world of the multiplex.
As a quick reminder, Parkland will “look inside the Parkland hospital — which housed John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, and, years later, Jack Ruby as they all perished — on November 22nd, 1963 as their workers and members of the President’s staff dealt with the chaos of that day.” If all goes according to plan, this should prove to be a pretty unique, informative experience, and my gut tells me that the short-clipped focus of the story could wisely distance the film from inviting immediate comparisons to other motion pictures with a parallel subject matter — like Oliver Stone‘s unmatchable JFK, for instance.
How do you think Welling will fare among this prestigious cast?