TEN CENT PISTOL Gets Top Dollar Casting

Joe Mantegna

The Alexander brothers, JT and Damon, have been hard at work since launching their Route 17 Entertainment production company earlier this year. And though they remain relatively unknown (hell, I’d never heard of them til today), their plan of independently producing three films for themselves to star in seems to be going pretty smoothly, if the caliber of actors they’ve been casting is any indication.

Their first production is a film with the delightful title Ten Cent Pistol, formerly known as The Go-Getters. The Alexander brothers will be playing the Brickhouse brothers, a couple of hoods deep in the organized crime of Los Angeles, California. Though they’re playing the leads, they’ve done well for themselves by snagging none other than Joe Mantegna to play the part of Punchy, a slick shyster lawyer. Even without knowing much more about the role, I for one am very excited to see Mantegna doing some more film work. I’m sure Criminal Minds is a great gig, but not only does the show not interest me, I can’t take Mantegna seriously with a goatee, for some reason (don’t bother writing in to let me know he’s shaved it off, ’cause I still won’t care). Mantegna is well regarded in the crime-fiend arena, despite his involvement in The Godfather: Part III (which for the record, I actually like). However you may feel about that film, you would find it difficult to argue that Mantegna is not perfectly cast in that role and that he does not play it with aplomb. Plus, he’s Fat Tony on The Simpsons. Boom.

Also added to Ten Cent Pistol is Alan’s boy, Adam Arkin. How I managed to miss out on this guy’s career until 2009′s A Serious Man, I’m not entirely sure. But after that and especially after his pair of all-too-brief appearances on the last season of Justified, I am ready for more of this guy (and there’s no way he’s not gonna be back next season, right, producers of Justified? Right?). This is all on top of the news last month that Jena Malone, who played the sweet-faced husband stealer Nancy McCoy on Hatfields & McCoys, has taken the female lead in Ten Cent Pistol. So that’s good news for fans of attractive women.

So yeah, Ten Cent Pistol is looking like less of a crapshoot as the days go by. Here’s hoping the film will live up to this cast, and I have a good feeling it probably will.