'Dom Hemingway' opens in Twin Cities this weekend

Dom Hemingway
Jude Law as the title character in the new movie "Dom Hemingway." Writer and director Richard Shepard says Law, usually cast as a romantic lead, loved the character so much he spent weeks rehearsing alone with Shepard while also gaining 20 pounds for the role.
Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

This weekend a London gangster with anger issues, Dom Hemingway, will begin assaulting his way across local movie screens. The film stars Jude Law as the title character, having made a startling transformation from his leading man looks to a puffy, scarred hard man, with a penchant for hair cream and mutton chop sideburns. And yes, it's a comedy. Strangely enough this very English character sprang from the mind of New Yorker Richard Shepard. He introduced the local premiere of the film at the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival.

Shepard joins The Daily Circuit's Euan Kerr to talk about how he created the character - and then how Jude Law became obsessed with Dom.

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