Dougray Scott Joins Indie/Romantic/Fantasy, Plots Death of John Woo

This article isn’t so much about THE VEIL OF MAYA, the new independent romantic fantasy Variety is reporting actor Dougray Scott has signed on to star in.   This is more about a man who could have been an A-lister and slipped through the cracks.   The premise of THE VEIL OF MAYA involves a woman traveling through time to undo a love that ends in tragedy.

Now, let’s travel back in time to early 2000 when Scott was hand-picked by Tom Cruise to play the role of the lead villain, Sean Ambrose, in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II.   Sounds like a pretty cush gig, right?   Yeah, you might think that, unless the role you have lined up right after this gig is to play Wolverine in the first X-MEN film.   Dougray Scott was cast as Logan.   It was a done deal.   He was months away from growing the mutton chops and sliding on the adamantium claws.   Then, John Woo let MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II get behind, and the film ran two months over schedule.   Scott, already contracted and having nearly completed his work on MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II, had to drop out of X-MEN.   A very little known Australian actor by the name of Hugh Jackman stepped in for 20th Century Fox, and the rest is history.

Now, nearly ten years later, Hugh Jackman is hosting the Oscars, prepping for his fifth outing as Wolverine, and loving every minute of it.   Dougray Scott just signed to be in a film directed by a woman whose last filme was a virginal high school comedy starring Rumer Willis.   I picture Scott every night in his room with a Voodoo doll that looks like John Woo, just waiting for the right moment to push the pin in.   But, hey, he’ll always have MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II on DVD to keep him company.