Claim: Michael Fassbender is an actor in films.

The Counselor is a 2013 British-American dark thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Cormac McCarthy . It stars Michael Fassbender as the eponymous Counselor as well as Penélope Cruz , Cameron Diaz , Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt . The film deals with primal human concerns like greed , mortality , love , and trust related to the theme of corruption and profit in a high stakes criminal environment . Fassbender plays the eponymous Counselor who out of greed gets irrevocably in over his head in a drug deal around the troubled Ciudad Juarez , Mexico / Texas border area .   The Counselor was chosen as the closing film at the 2013 Morelia Film Festival and also played the Cork Film Festival . The London premiere was held on October 3 , 2013 in Leicester Square . The New York City premiere was held on October 9 , 2013 . The film was theatrically released on October 25 , 2013 . It is dedicated to Scott 's brother , Tony , who died in 2012 .