I was already interested in The Book of Eli, aka the Hughes Brothers’ return to dramatic features. The post-apocalyptic movie stars Denzel Washington as a man carrying a book across what remains of the United States. Gary Oldman, Ray Stevenson, Mila Kunis and Michael Gambon are all in the cast.

So is Tom Waits. [According to his label, Anti, by way of The Playlist.] That’s a beautiful thing. I’ll see anything Waits is in, and when it’s a movie I was already inclined to check out…that’s a bonus.

Waits’ role in the film is small — he’s playing a guy named ‘Engineer’ — but minor parts have never prevented him from making an impression. Check out his standout work as Renfield in Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula and an even more brief appearance in Tony Scott’s epiliptically over-edited Domino below. Waits will (hopefully) soon be seen in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and as Anti mentions he and wife Kathleen Brennan are currently writing a new record, you might be lucky enough to see him on the road sometime next year.