Dominic Purcell, best known for his roles on Prison Break and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, will step in to replace the late Ray Stevenson in Cassino in Ischia, the film Stevenson was making when he passed away suddenly in May. Production was underway in Italy when Stevenson suddenly felt sick. He was rushed to the hospital, but died soon after. The Punisher War Zone and Thor: Ragnarok star was 58 years old. Production stopped until last week, when Purcell was cast, and is now set to resume. Purcell will now step into the role of Nic Cassino, a past-his-prime action star who signs on to make an artsy, Italian action movie to salvage his flagging career.
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According to a synopsis at Deadline, who first reported Purcell’s casting, the film centers on Nic Cassino, “a former action star who is knocked off his perch by the next generation of action heroes. In an attempt to revive his career, he travels to Italy to make the first ever ‘Neo-Realist’ action film with a down on his luck Italian director. When unresolved family struggles resurface, he is forced to reconcile all he left behind on his road to fame.”
Purcell appeared in six of the seven seasons of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, playing Mick Rory/Heatwave, a character he first debuted on The Flash. On The Flash and Legends, he periodically shared the screen with his Prison Break co-star Wentworth Miller, who played Leonard Snart/Captain Cold.
Purcell is best known for playing tough-guy characters, from Prison Break to Straw Dogs, but on Legends, he had an opportunity to lampoon that image a bit, creating comedy out of the fact that a muscular, grunting crook like Mick would find himself in bizarre and often silly situations, whether it’s writing romance novels or fighting a giant octopus alongside a 7′ tall, three-breasted alien. It sounds a bit like Cassino in Ischia will have him flexing those kinds of muscles again, as his character struggles with career and family troubles alongside trying to make a new kind of movie alongside an equally-troubled director.
Frequent Martin Scorsese collaborator Barbara DeFina is producing the film. Frank Ciota is directing Cassino in Ischia from a script by his brother, Joseph Ciota, with whom the filmmaker previously collaborated on Stiffs and Ciao America. Isola Verde Films and DeFina Film Productions are set to produce, with executive producers Frank Ciota, Joe Ciota, and Cristina Giubbetti for Cattleya on board as well. The Republic Pictures acquisition will be distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
