Giddy Up: Malkovich Joins “Secretariat”

Malkovich being Malkovich.

Variety reports that John Malkovich has joined the cast of “Secretariat,” the biopic about the superstar racehorse of the 1970s. Randall Wallace is directing.

Malkovich will play Lucien Laurin, the ex-jockey (no wonder he quit–as played by Malkovich who is way too tall to be a jockey) who became the trainer of the horse who won the Triple Crown in legendarily spectacularly fashion. Lane will play Penny Chenery, the “housewife who knew little about horse racing when she took over her ailing father’s Virginia horse farm.” The relationship between jockey and trainer will be “the core of the film.”

Here’s a tip for the director and writer(s)–don’t forget to make Secretariat a character. No, I don’t mean have voice overs or anthropomorphize him. Just make sure viewers understand why even non-racing fans became so fascinated with this particular horse. One of the many failings of “Seabiscuit” (and I admit, that movie has so many failings that I can never resist watching it, because I look at it and like to imagine the movie it could have been) was that it completely left the horse, whose personality was so wonderfully described in Laura Hillenbrand’s book, out of the story.

As for Malkovich–you know, as he goes on in his career, he is reminding me more and more of George Sanders. You young kids don’t know who that is, but you’ll run into him if you ever do a spin through some of the classics from the ’40s and ’50s.  They’re both these archly suave, sarcastic types who play themselves with such a unique air that they almost become their own adjective; the only way you can describe them is by invoking their names.