Breaking Bad fans rejoice; Gus is ditching Los Pollos Hermanos for the big screen. Giancarlo Esposito will join Tyler Perry, Matthew Fox, Ed Burns and Jean Reno in Summit Entertainment’s I, Alex Cross.

The titular character, Alex Cross, comes from the pages of James Patterson’s book series and has already graced a couple of big screen productions, Kiss the Girls and Along Came A Spider, in which he was portrayed by Morgan Freeman. This time around we’ll see a younger version of Cross, played by Perry, when the detective and psychologist comes face to face with a serial killer (Fox). Director Rob Cohen is due to get behind the lens when production begins in August.

While I typically take a pass on detective action thrillers, I, Alex Cross is becoming more and more intriguing. First and foremost, this is a piece that limits Perry to just one job, acting. Clearly he can handle both, but perhaps he can really raise the bar by narrowing his focus. As for Esposito, while he does have an extensive body of work, I’ve got Breaking Bad on the brain and as great as it’d be to watch him use his Gus-like menacing side in a villainous role, it could be interesting to see him tackle one on the other end of the spectrum. No word on who Esposito will play just yet, so we’ll have to wait and see.

By Perri Nemiroff (via Summit Entertainment)

Giancarlo Esposito