Cameron Diaz Joins GAMBIT
The planned Joel and Ethan Coen-scripted remake of the 1966 British action comedy GAMBIT has found its Nicole Chang. Deadline reports that Cameron Diaz will be stepping into the role made famous by Shirley MacLaine. She joins Colin Firth, who is attached to play con man Harry Tristan Dean (Michael Caine in the original).
In the upcoming version of Gambit, Harry is a London art curator who plans to trick a deep-pocketed collector into buying a forged Monet by having Texas steer roper Nicole pose as the granddaughter of the man who salvaged the Monet at the end of World War II.
This is a risky move for Diaz, since Nicole Chang was one of MacLaine’s most celebrated roles and it seems to fall outside her recent comfort zone. However, given the Coen brothers’ phenomenal success with the True Grit remake, the apparent changes made to the story that might help differentiate the role, and the fact that Diaz will be starring opposite Oscar front-runner Firth, I’m not sure how she could have said no.
Gambit will be directed by Michael Hoffman (The Last Station) and shooting is expected to start in London this May.
What do you think of Cameron Diaz as Nicole Chang?
