Ewan McGregor cast in Steven Soderbergh's 'Knockout'? + 'The Ghost Writer' gets a release date

The folks over at The Playlist report that sources say that Ewan McGregor has been cast in Steven Soderbergh's Knockout, along with Micheal Fassbender, Dennis Quaid, and Michael Douglas. It hasn't been totally confirmed, but the people at The Playlist usually know their stuff. Soderbergh is scouting locations in New Mexico for the February production start date, and Ireland and Turkey might also be locations for the film. The film might be getting an August 2010 release date. A huge thanks to Magdaléna for pointing this information out to us on our Facebook page. Here's a synopsis of the project:

Ultimately, "Knockout" is now more of a revenge action-spy thriller. Essentially it's hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and especially one who kicks serious ass. Double crossed by someone on her own team, Mallory Kane (Carano)— a black ops super soldier — seeks to uncover who has set her up to take the fall for a job that goes bad and involves a murder.

The male actors are all part of Carano's special forces team. Douglas plays a government figure not unlike Chris Cooper or Brian Cox from the 'Bourne' movies. Fassbender and one other actor who has yet to sign-on officially (we've been asked not to say who because it's not 100% confirmed, but the actor is male and a fairly big name; though it's possible scheduling conflicts may prevent him from participating) play members of her commando spy unit, and one of these two plays the central antagonist that betrays Carano's character (this is still being kept under wraps for now). McGregor's role is that of the owner/guy who runs a Blackwater private military company-type group that the female fighting champion is is part of (and apparently many of the males take a beating at the hands of Carano).

...Soderbergh has been circling McGregor for some time now. The "Trainspotting" actor was originally pegged to have a role in the 'Ocean's' films, but his commitments to Lucas' "Star Wars" prequels unfortunately precluded his participation.

The Playlist also announced that The Ghost Writer, starring Ewan McGregor will open in limited release on February 19 in the US and will expand on March 5 and March 15.



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