Costner Likes Playing Doctor

Sept. 19, 2000 -- Kevin Costner just can’t seem to stay away from roles requiring an egotistical authority figure who loves weapons (e.g., baseball bats, scalpels, cannons).

The actor is in talks to star as a heartbroken doctor in Dragonfly, a $75 million drama to be helmed by Patch Adams director Tom Shadyac, Variety reports.

It would be the second sawbones part in a year for the floundering Costner, who portrays a disaster-relief physician in the upcoming Oliver Stone pic Beyond Borders.

In Dragonfly, Costner would play a doctor who thinks that his late ex-wife is trying to speak to him via the near-death experiences of his patients. How about the suggested working title What Lies Beneath the Sick Sense?

Costner, who didn’t exactly wow audiences with his last baseball epic, For Love of the Game, is struggling to find a hit. Will he find it here? Dragonfly director Shadyac found success with Patch Adams, though its soft-shoe sentimentality may be less suitable for Costner than it was for Adams’ flexible funnyman Robin Williams.

Shooting on Dragonfly is scheduled to begin in late October, likely right after Costner wraps Beyond Borders. He will also be seen in the Cuban Missile Crisis film 13 Days this December. Test audiences for that film have so far expressed a strong dislike for the actor’s portrayal of an American hero.