All kinds of good things are happening these days for Chris O’Dowd, the Roscommon-born comic who first came to our attention in "Bridesmaids" a couple of years back – he’s also guested on the HBO series "Girls" – but has been well-known at home and in the U.K. for some time now.
O’Dowd is going to make his Broadway debut next spring alongside another first timer, James Franco, in the classic John Steinbeck work "Of Mice and Men." The show will start rehearsing in February with an eye towards an April opening.
“I am going to do 'Of Mice and Men' with Chris O’Dowd, directed by this amazing director, Anna Shapiro, who won a Tony for the stage version of 'August: Osage County.' So that will be my Broadway debut,” Franco told an audience at a speaking engagement in Los Angeles last weekend.
Haven’t seen anything from O’Dowd’s camp confirming the casting, but if Franco says it then it must be a go. O’Dowd’s participation had been rumored all week in various reports.
Ands that’s not all. The 34-year-old Irishman also just nabbed a plum role in a movie about the life and cheating times of drugged up cyclist Lance Armstrong that started production last week.
O’Dowd is down to play the Irish journalist David Walsh who outed Armstrong as a cheater way before the disgraced athlete was forced to admit his systemic doping.
The film will be helmed by British director Stephen Frears, and it’s based on a book by Walsh called "Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong." Ben Foster nabbed the role of the phony sporting hero.
“I saw Chris O’Dowd in 'Bridesmaids' and he was just fantastic and very likable. When people see him in it people will may have a very false impression of me...he’ll make me seem like a decent human being,” Walsh jokingly told The Irish Times of the casting.
There’s no release date for the film yet, but it likely will be sooner rather than later as another Armstrong biopic is also in the works at Warner Bros starring Bradley Cooper.
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