Showtime is making a movie about the Scandal and has cast Christopher Plummer in the role of Cardinal Law.
Plummer may be most famous for playing the good Captain Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music,” but perhaps they expect him to draw more on the character of the Shakespeare-spouting Klingon from Star Trek VI in this role.
Plummer will bring “authority, humanity, and an appropriately chilling detachment” to the part, Robert Greenblatt, Showtime Networks’ entertainment president, said in a statement Tuesday.
Oh boy, I can’t imagine what a hatchet job this will be.
Obviously, the casting of an actor doesn’t always say a whole lot (some exceptions of iconography like Jane Fonda or John Wayne duly noted).
But, *in itself* the casting of Christopher Plummer is actually good news. He did the narration for THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, and I seem to remember reading that he’s a Christian, though I can’t find a quick cite. He might be more reluctant to participate in a hatchet job than some other actors, and a 75-year-old legend is freer to say “no” to a project he doesn’t believe in than some other people.
The script may be unredeemable, of course, but … there it is.