Tommy Lee Jones In Talks To Join Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer on MALAVITA

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“Darkly comedic” action film will lens in France.

I don’t know about anybody else, but for me, it’s getting to the point where the words “starring Robert De Niro” hit me with roughly the same intensity as “live on the main stage: Joe Satriani.”  It’s a phrase that, about fifteen to twenty years ago, would’ve gotten me all fired up and circling dates on calendars, but that these days pretty much just makes me sigh and set off looking for something else to think about.  For entirely different sets of reasons, you could say the same thing about Michelle Pfeiffer, and to a lesser extent, Tommy Lee Jones.

So the Variety report today that Tommy Lee Jones is in talks to join forces with Pfeiffer and De Niro on a dark action comedy doesn’t exactly make the earth tilt, though it is intriguing.  Of the three, only Jones has taken on a role (No Country For Old Men) in the last decade that was in any way memorable on the basis of the substance of his performance.  With a slew of major roles in upcoming films, Jones looks to be returning to his prolific pace of the mid- to late nineties.

Of late, De Niro has been turning up in a bizarre range of films that have had the sum effect of making him look like a bit of a boob.  And Michelle Pfeiffer has been largely AWOL up until very recently, when she turned up in the Tim Burton bomb, Dark Shadows.

According to the article, Jones would play an FBI agent who counsels the De Niro and Pfeiffer characters, a mob couple who are struggling to adapt to the straight life after entering the Witness Protection Program.  The picture will be directed by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, La Femme Nikita).

The mental cocktail that is evoked by stirring the words “dark,” “action,” and “comedy” is one that gives me a bit of tequila face on first swallow, but we’ll stick a lemon wedge in our mouths and wait to see what happens.  Stay tuned to the Complex for more updates as they occur.