Alan Cumming to star in Indian drama; Dali film on back burner

Even by his hyphenate standards, Alan Cumming has been pretty busy lately.

The Tony-winner and Emmy-nominee’s role as slick campaign manager Eli Gold on “The Good Wife” continues to be meaty, with the series recently picked up for a fifth season. He’s set to star in a one-man “Macbeth” that opens on Broadway later this month (more on that shortly). And now he has several film projects in the works.

Cumming tells The Times that he’s come aboard to star in “First-Class Man,” the long-developed Roger Spottiswoode film about an Indian prodigy who makes the move from his native country to Cambridge, England. (Cumming quipped he’ll be playing the Indian boy, though given his “Macbeth” turn—he’s playing 15 different parts, including Lady Macbeth -- we wouldn’t be so sure he’s joking.)

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Meanwhile, Cumming says he’s on board to start in the wartime Dutch drama “Dunes of Overveen,” an indie project co-written by gay activist David Mixner and the British expat writer Richard Grant, with the project seeking a director.

But Cumming won’t be playing one of the most notable artists of the 20th century. The actor has long been attached to star as Salvador Dali in a whimsical biopic called “The Surrealist.”

The independent project, to be directed by French filmmaker Philippe Mora, got close to a green light last year thanks to an assortment of international financing, Cumming said. But there’s no financing for the film currently and Cumming said he doesn’t expect anything to happen on it anytime soon. It wasn’t that long ago that Dali enjoyed a screen renaissance of sorts thanks to “Midnight In Paris,” where he was played to some comic acclaim by Adrien Brody.

Over a long screen career, Cumming has had numerous character parts, including many in studio films like “X2,” “”Spy Kids 3-D” and “The Smurfs.” He most recently brought out passion project “Any Day Now,” a period drama that hit screens in December.

The actor is getting ready to star in “Macbeth” through the end of June, as well as reprise his “Good Wife” role when filming on that picks up again in a few months. Cumming said fans of the show and its complicated web of relationships could be surprised in the season ahead. “There are people who aren’t getting together but should—and people who shouldn’t be getting together but are,” he said.

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