Interview: Ben Foster Talks About His New Film RAMPART, Starring Woody Harrelson

Yesterday, I had the chance to sit down with Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma, The Messenger) to talk about his new movie The Mechanic, in which he stars alongside Jason Statham and Donald Sutherland. In a roundtable interview, a few other reporters and I asked him about his upcoming projects.

I've been pretty busy, man. I just produced my first film called Rampart. Oren Moverman, who wrote and directed The Messenger, we started a production company together and this is our first film. It stars Woody Harrelson. I have a small role in it. That should be out probably next October. It's based on a James Ellroy piece. It's an original script that Oren wrote. It's got teeth. [It's about] the rampart scandal of the late 90's. We've got a few projects that we're working on together, we got the financing in fast. Woody was the only man for this role. The work he does in this film is going to knock people out.

It's not surprising that Foster is hyping Harrelson's performance given their history together (and given the fact that he's producing the movie), but it's also not surprising to hear Harrelson does great work. He's no stranger to accolades and I'm glad he's finally starting to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor after his start as an affable bartender on "Cheers."

I'm more excited about the fact that this project is based on a James Ellroy piece, considering Ellroy is one of the best fiction crime writers around and L.A. Confidential is a solid film. Perhaps Rampart will approach that level of greatness. What do you think?