1st look at Brad Pitt in Andrew Dominik's Cogan's Trade; Garret Dillahunt joins

Sadly, we'll never get the chance to see Brad Pitt as a Japanese motorcycle teen in Akira, nor will he be making an appearance in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. That's ok, though, because being a part of Andrew Dominik's awesome looking adaptation of George V. Higgins' crime novel, Cogan's Trade, is more than enough for me. Pitt and Dominik worked together to what I think were mixed results in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, but this one sounds like a sure fire winner.

Pitt is featured as an enforcer hired to sniff out the culprits who robbed a mob run poker game. Scoot McNairy(Monsters) and Ben Mendolsohn(Animal Kingdom) play the two junkies that committed the crime; James Gandolfini is a washed up hitman; Ray Liotta is the guy who ran the game; while Richard Jenkins is a snitch with some key info.  Sam Shepard and Bella Heathcoate are also involved somehow. Garret Dillahunt(Winter's Bone, No Country for Old Men) has just recently joined as well.

Below is what looks to be the first image of Brad Pitt as Jackie Cogan in the film. Either that or he really had a bad day on set. I bet Angelina left him all the little adoptees to babysit while she went off gallivanting.

Principle photography has been completed, so look for Cogan's Trade to land some time early in 2012.