Harry Potter Is Going Off to War

After playing the most popular boy wizard in history, joking around with Ricky Gervais, and appearing nude on a London stage with a horse, Daniel Radcliffe has managed to cram an awful lot into his 20 years here on Earth. And now, he’s ready to play a war hero in what is sure to be an aspiring Best Picture nominee. Variety reports the star will play the lead role in a remake of “All Quiet On The Western Front,” a movie that already won Best Picture when it was first released in 1930.

Daniel Radcliffe will play the lead role in an updated version of the Oscar-winning Best Picture "All Quiet on the Western Front."

The WWI drama tells the story of Paul Baumer (Radcliffe), a young German soldier fighting in the trenches of France.

Producing duo Ian Stokell and Lesley Paterson wrote the script and will produce through their Sliding Down Rainbows Entertainment production shingle.

Shooting on "Western Front" will begin in the spring of 2012 after Radcliffe wraps a 2011 Broadway stint on "How to Succeed Without Really Trying."

This version of AQOTWF is sure to be more graphic in detail than its Oscar-winning predecessor. We’re in the “Saving Private Ryan” era now, where war movies are made as realistically as human possible. That means you’re likely to see Harry Potter fighting in some fairly gruesome trench battle scenes. The question is: does Radcliffe have what it takes to headline a very, very serious movie like this one?

Let’s be honest for a moment. Radcliffe is an okay actor. I don’t think he’s all that great. There hasn’t been a moment in the Potter films where I felt he gave the character a dimension that hadn’t already been provided for him on the page. He does a solid, workmanlike job as Potter. But the role owns him, and not the other way around. Then again, I don’t know that there’s any actor young actor who could have done better, given how big a shadow Potter casts over everything.

This movie will be Radcliffe’s chance to show he’s a legit film actor. And he won’t have a horse and his own birthday suit to distract everyone.

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