Lee Daniels adds John Cusack to the cast of The Paperboy

John Cusack might be my favorite actor ever, but lately he's given me little reason to cheer him on. Duds like War Inc., Hot Tub Time Machine, and 2012 are not worthy of the star of High Fidelity and a bunch of my favorite films of the 80s and 90s. Brighter things could be on the horizon, with his starring in The Raven as Edgar Allen Poe, but really I'm not sure that's the type of thing he's best at. We'll just have to wait and see, but I kinda like the sound of the move he's just made, signing on to replace Tobey Maguire in The Paperboy, directed by Lee Daniels(Precious).

The Paperboy is based on Pete Dexter's crime novel about two brothers, Ward James and his brother Jack. Ward is a successful news journalist, while Jack is a college dropout with few prospects. The two get caught up in an investigation of the murder of the town sheriff, and discover that the man convicted of the crime may in fact be innocent.  Sounds like gritty, pulpy stuff and a change of pace for both Daniels and Cusack.

Matthew McConaughey, coming off a surprisingly strong turn in The Lincoln Lawyer, is set to play older brother Ward. Zac Efron is lined up for Jack, and frankly he could use a more mature role like this. Maguire was set to play the man in prison for the crime, with Sofia Vergara(Modern Family) as a woman who writes letters to inmates.  Both were recently forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, leading to Cusack coming aboard and Nicole Kidman entering talks as well.

I'm still a little perplexed by how Daniels will handle the material, which had been developed by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almadovar for something like a decade. The two couldn't be more different, but recent reports suggest that Almadovar may be more closely involved in the film now than I thought, which could only help.