Last August, we covered a story about the Iceman, Richard Kuklinski, one of the world’s most infamous serial killers and mafia hitmen (Read: Best News Ever: Ice Man Richard Kuklinski Movie Delayed Due To Channing Tatum Casting Possibility). At the time, it was revealed that Philip Carlo, who authored the book The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer, was pulling out of his movie deal to adapt the book with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura because Bonaventura wanted to cast Channing Tatum to play Kuklinski.

This would have been one of the worst casting choices in the history of cinema, and everyone including Carlo seemed to know it, which led to the halt and retreat from further progress. At the time, Carlo made it known that his preference was for Mickey Rourke to take on the role, and though many of you felt actors like James Gandolfini or Tom Wilkinson would be best, it’s now being reported that Rourke is indeed attached to star.

The script for the adaptation is being written by David McKenna (American History X, Blow), and the movie is now set up with producer Matty Beckerman and his production company, Natural Selection, which will be fully backing the film. When talking about Rourke and McKenna, Beckerman said “This is a role Mickey Rourke was born to play and, as a huge fan of David McKenna’s work, I am thrilled to have him on board.”

Now, Rourke is not my first choice for this role — a role which might be impossible to play given the many ticks and tendencies we’ve seen in the incredibly compelling interviews with Kuklinski (which you can see at the link above or on YouTube) — but he is worlds better than Tatum. Rourke has a ton of talent, and if he pulls it off properly, he could be staring at his first Academy Award. On the other hand, if he can’t reach down deep and find the true Kuklinski within him, this movie might not work quite as well.

With all of that said, I’m much more excited for this movie now, and it should be interesting to see how it all plays out.

[Source: Variety]