Rami Malek is back in ‘Mr. Robot’ mode in ‘The Amateur’ trailer [Watch]
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Rami Malek in a lead role. Since he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 2018, his biggest roles have been as a Bond villain in “No Time to Die” Denzel Washington’s LAPD partner in crime thriller “The Little Things,” and a supporting role in “Oppenheimer’s” large ensemble. None of these movies were really what you’d call Rami Malek movies. “The Amateur,” which 20th Century released a trailer for on Wednesday, is a Rami Malek movie. The espionage thriller looks to take advantage of Malek’s unique characteristics in a way nothing else quite has since “Mr. Robot.”
Malek stars as an antihero on a revenge mission who uses CIA resources for his own purposes. Here’s the official logline from 20th Century: “Charlie Heller (Malek) is a brilliant, but deeply introverted decoder for the CIA working out of a basement office at headquarters in Langley whose life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack. When his supervisors refuse to take action, he takes matters into his own hands, embarking on a dangerous trek across the globe to track down those responsible, his intelligence serving as the ultimate weapon for eluding his pursuers and achieving his revenge.”
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The cast also includes Emmy winner Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Emmy winner Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg, Holt McCallany, Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson, Adrian Martinez, Danny Sapani, and Emmy winner Laurence Fishburne. Fishburne plays Malek’s character’s CIA trainer, who slaps him in the face and tells him he can’t make him into a killer. But Heller is a killer, just not in the traditional hand-to-hand way.
The film is directed by James Hawes (“Slow Horses” Season 1) and written by Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli. It’s based on the novel of the same name by Robert Littell, which was previously adapted into a 1981 film starring John Savage and Christopher Plummer. Hutch Parker, p.g.a., Dan Wilson, p.g.a., Malek, and Joel B. Michaels are the producers.
“The Amateur” opens in theaters on April 11, 2025.
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