When we last left Andrew Dominik's adaptation of George V. Higgins' crime novel Cogan's Trade, the film was stacking up a great cast led by Brad Pitt and costarring James Gandolfini, Sam Rockwell, Bella Heathcote, and Richard Jenkins.  Also rumored to be in the cast were Casey Affleck, Mark Ruffalo, and Javier Bardem.  Risky Business now confirms that not only are Affleck, Ruffalo, and Bardem in the mix, but Ray Liotta is getting in the game as well.

The story of Cogan's Trade revolves around a mob enforcer (Pitt) who must investigate the robbery of a high-stakes poker game.  Liotta is set to play "Mark 'Markie' Trattman, the unfortunate hustler who runs the game in a motel room and finds things only going downhill from there."  Filming begins later this month in New Orleans for an early 2012 release.  The only way I can see this cast getting any better is if the rumor about Bill Murray joining the film comes true.  Hit the jump for a synopsis of the novel.

Here’s the synopsis for George Higgins’ Cogan’s Trade:

[Cogan's Trade] tracks Jackie Cogan’s career in a gangland version of law and order. For Cogan is an enforcer; and when the Mob’s rules get broken, he gets hired to ply his trade — murder. In the gritty, tough-talking pages of Higgins’s 1974 national best-seller, Cogan is called in when a high-stake card game under the protection of the Mob is heisted. Expertly, with a ruthless businessman’s efficiency, a shrewd sense of other people’s weaknesses, and a style as cold as his stare, Cogan moves with reliable precision to restore the status quo as ill-conceived capers and double-dealing shenanigans erupt into high-voltage violence. [Amazon]

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