That Bill Murray sure is staying busy these days but I’m starting to wonder if that’s a mixed blessing. His last few big roles in films have included Hyde Park on Hudson, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, Monuments Men, St. Vincent and Aloha. The best that can be said for most of those is that “well, it wasn’t very good but Bill Murray was great in it!” See what I mean? Mixed blessing.
This leads us to the trailer above for Rock the Kasbah which looks like it could be another mixed blessing. On one hand we get Murray looking very Murray and Zooey Deschanel who really should be in more films. Plus, Barry Levinson directed it and he’s no slouch. But that trailer….yeesh. I guess we’ll all find out when Rock the Kasbah hits theaters on October 23. More info below…
A has-been rock manager from Van Nuys, California stumbles upon a once-in-a-lifetime voice in a remote Afghan cave in Rock the Kasbah, a dramatic comedy inspired by stranger-than-fiction, real-life events and directed by Oscar winner Barry Levinson. Richie Lanz (Bill Murray), dumped and stranded in war-torn Kabul by his last remaining client (Zooey Deschanel), discovers Salima Khan (Leem Lubany), a Pashtun teenager with a beautiful voice and the courageous dream of becoming the first woman to compete on national television in Afghanistan’s version of “American Idol.” Richie partners with a savvy hooker (Kate Hudson), a pair of hard-partying war profiteers (Danny McBride and Scott Caan) and a hair-trigger mercenary (Bruce Willis) and, braving dangerous cultural prejudices, manages his new protégée into becoming the “Afghan Star.”
