John C. Reilly Cast in Polanski's “God of Carnage”

The mystery of what the hell Matt Dillon was doing in Roman Polanski's adaptation of "God of Carnage" can be forgotten, as it was never quite true.

Instead, John C. Reilly will take the role of Michael, played on Broadway by James Gandolfini, a blue-collar success married to Veronica, an earnest woman hard at work on a book about Darfur, in Polanski's next film.

The film, based on Yasmina Reza's Tony Award-winning play of the same name, tells the story of two couples brought together one night to discuss a playground altercation that took place between their sons, leaving one boy serious hurt.

There's been a lot of online chatter since Reilly's casting was announced about how great it will be to see him go back to doing drama after a long stretch of comedy, an insight that is ill-informed. "God of Carnage," while tackling some heavy issues about class, apologies, forgiveness and war, is very much a comedy, and an often broad one at that

When the project was first announced a month or so ago it was reported that Foster would be starring opposite Matt Dillon, while Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet would play the other couple. But it turns out that Dillon was never officially on board.

In a game of "One of these things is not like the others," Dillon would clearly be considered the outlier, despite having done some great work. Reilly is far better suited to the role--really, all you have to do is look at Gandolfini to know that.

We didn't much care for the original Broadway prosecution, though it did earn Tony nominations for Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden (who also won), Jeff Daniels, and Hope Davis, as well as wins for Best Play and Best Director. That said, the cast is too good to ignore.

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