EXCLUSIVE: Matt Bomer has been set to star opposite Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in Nice Guys, the action drama that Iron Man 3‘s Shane Black wrote and is directing with Joel Silver producing at Warner Bros. I would say that Bomer plays the heavy, but he’ll be carrying little if any body fat as he comes right from Savannah after he wraps the Steven Soderbergh-directed sequel Magic Mike XXL. I can still remember when Bomer, a complete unknown, was verging on being The Guy when Brett Ratner tapped him to be Superman in the trilogy of films that got grounded. It has taken some time, but Bomer is getting his movie chance now. As his USA show White Collar ends this fall after its six season run, Bomer is now focused on big screen opportunities. That effort was helped by the chops he displayed in a heartbreaking turn as Felix Turner in HBO’s The Normal Heart, which got Bomer an Emmy nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category. Bomer is also attached to play actor Montgomer Clift in the biopic Monty Clift. He’s repped by CAA, Anonymous Content’s Tony Lipp and lawyered by Steve Warren.
Black’s Nice Guys takes place in 1970s Los Angeles, and Gosling plays a detective hired by a gangster (Crowe) to find a missing girl, and in the process uncovers a dangerous conspiracy and that is where Bomer’s character comes in. The studio also set Margaret Qually, star of HBO’s The Leftovers, to play the lead female role, the daughter of a corrupt chief justice who figures in the scandal.
