Owen Wilson takes Woody Allen role

Jason Biggs, Kenneth Branagh, Larry David, John Cusack. Now Owen Wilson looks set to join the list of actors who have tried their hand at being Woody Allen's onscreen alter ego.

The 41-year-old star has signed on for Allen's new film, due to shoot this summer. The only other confirmed casting is Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the wife of the French president, whose role is thought to be a small one.

Allen enjoyed something of a critical and commercial renaissance last year with the success of Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a romance set in Spain which won star Penélope Cruz a best supporting actress Oscar.

But his following film, Whatever Works, which opened New York's Tribeca film festival last spring, has yet to secure a UK release date.

While Vicky Cristina and his latest film You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger – which stars Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins and Freida Pinto and was shot in London last summer – are both semi-serious multicultural dramas, Whatever Works marked a return to Allen's traditional Manhattan milieu.

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Source: Guardian Online