Denis Leary Puts On Producer's Hat

By Michael Fleming

NEW YORK (Variety) - Actor/comic Denis Leary is making a name for himself as a producer as his New York-based Apostle Pictures company develops movie projects at several studios.

He has just made a deal to executive produce and star in the action/comedy "The Whole Nine Yards" at Disney, playing a parolee who cons his parole officer onto the wrong side of the law.

Leary will co-write the project with his "Two if by Sea" collaborator Mike Armstrong, while his Apostle partner, Jim Serpico, will also serve as executive producer.

Perhaps appropriately for the company's name, Apostle Pictures is hatching about 12 projects to produce at several studios.

"We're hoping to grow into a full fledged producer, with projects in feature and TV that are not just Denis Leary vehicles," Serpico said. One of the first of these is an adaptation of the Nick Tosches novel Trinities at New Line.

Leary and Serpico are also shopping Noose, a dark drama to be directed by Ted Demme in which Leary would play a low-level Irish hood in Boston who clashes with the neighborhood boss. They've got Pete Postlethwaite and Billy Bob Thornton ready to star. It's expected to be Demme's next film.

Leary just pacted for an untitled New Line comedy, in which he plays a disgraced junkbond king who becomes a butler in a Vegas high-roller suite in an effort to con the house. Leary, who just completed Second Civil War for HBO, will also co-star with Janeane Garofalo in the indie The Matchmaker and will play a role in The Real Blonde. Leary's also planning a sequel to his one-man show No Cure for Cancer, which HBO will broadcast in March.

Reuters/Variety