Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford clashed in epic fashion throughout The Fugitive, the 1993 classic that saw the former win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, with the pair of grizzled veterans pitted against each other in a cat-and-mouse thriller where Samuel Gerard hunted down accused murderer Richard Kimble.
Their paths have crossed in a way almost 30 years later, with Deadline reporting that the Men in Black star is being lined up to replace the Star Wars legend in The Burial, which is set up at Amazon with Jamie Foxx attached to the lead role.
Written by Doug Wright and directed by Maggie Betts, the drama is based on a true story detailed in an article in The New Yorker. A bankrupt funeral home owner sued a businessman over a handshake deal that went awry, before hiring an eccentric and enthusiastic attorney to represent him in the ensuing court battle.
Presumably, Foxx and Jones will play the two main characters, because Deadline’s description of the lawyer as “flamboyant” certainly doesn’t fit either of their established onscreen personas. Few in the history of the industry have ever done stony-faced gravitas better than Tommy Lee Jones, and a pair of heavyweight Oscar winners squaring off in a true-life drama guarantees that the performances are going to be of the highest quality.