UPDATE: Has Alexander Payne Corralled Cohen, Giamatti, Streep and Witherspoon?
A five year layoff comes with plenty of expectation
UPDATE: Variety has posted a story regurgitating the news previously reported however Meryl Streep's name is not included in the story, which says Paul Giamatti, Sacha Baron Cohen and Reese Witherspoon have all committed to the project with expectations for the project to land at Fox Searchlight. In the film Giamatti stars as a man low on money who decides he can have a much nicer life if he undergoes a process to shrink himself. Witherspoon would play a woman Giamatti meets on his journey as a miniature person. Baron Cohen would play a pint-sized foreigner.
Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere has received an interesting casting notice from one of his readers with details for a new Alexander Payne feature and the details include a cast already made up of Sacha Baron Cohen, Paul Giamatti, Meryl Streep and Reese Witherspoon with a title of Downsizing.
It has been some time since we saw a film from Payne after he won an Oscar for his Sideways script which he co-wrote with Jim Taylor. Sideways also earned Payne a directing nomination as well as scoring a Best Picture nom as well as two acting nominations for Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen. Since then he has only helmed a segment of the 2006 ensemble feature Paris, Je T'aime. Considering he is the director behind Sideways, About Schmidt and Election it is odd to see a five year delay between films and I don't count the Japanese remake of Sideways as a Payne project and I can only assume Payne himself is wishing he was never involved in the godawful I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
Payne will be directing the new HBO series "Hung" starring Thomas Jane as a well-endowed struggling high school basketball coach with Anne Heche set to co-star, but as far as feature films go there has been very little outside of the rumored Fork in the Road or The Descendents, which Payne and Taylor are producing through their production house Ad Hominem.
As for Downsizing, Wells doesn't have a synopsis or any additional information although he does say he has emails out to a few folks searching for more information. The film will reunite Payne with Election star Witherspoon and Giamatti who starred in Sideways should the casting note prove true. After a five year layoff it would be interesting to see Payne return with such an impressive ensemble.
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