Before much of the country has gotten its chance to see Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Variety has already reported that director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon‘s follow-up Collateral Beauty will star Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara, and former How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel, who you can also see in this summer’s David Foster Wallace biopic The End of the Tour. The film, written by Allan Loeb (21, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, San Andreas) looks like it could be another potential breakthrough for Gomez-Rejon. That said, details are still vague regarding the story, about a New York ad exec whose coworkers break him out of depression in an unexpected way with equally unexpected results. You can also see Jackman and Mara in Joe Wright‘s upcoming Pan, and Todd Haynes‘ Carol, for which Mara took home a Best Actress award at Cannes, is due out December 18, so anxious fans will have plenty to hold them over.
Also via Variety, add Rob Reiner‘s upcoming biopic LBJ to Woody Harrelson‘s list of upcoming projects, which also involves the final installment in the Hunger Games series and upcoming western By Way of Helena. Harrelson nabbed the starring role, and while Reiner hasn’t had a hit in a while, perhaps True Detective fans and those who criticized Selma for its depiction of the president will turn this into something of a comeback (and of course, simply being a biopic about an immediately recognizable figure probably won’t hurt). Production will start this Autumn.
Meanwhile, Deadline reports that Warner Bros will release Ghost Army with possibly the country’s biggest movie star, Bradley Cooper, as well as American Sniper co-star Andrew Lazar and Todd Phillips, with whom Cooper collaborated in the Hangover trilogy, all as producers. The film wisely shortens the title of Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles source, The Ghost Army Of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived The Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, And Other Audacious Fakery, but the longer title says it all. It’s worth noting that Beyer received rave reviews for his own PBS documentary on the subject, and also that none of the producers are committed to starring yet, so this one still could be a ways off.
Lastly, Variety reports that Eli Roth has found a new project over at Warner Bros. With two films, Knock Knock and The Green Inferno, awaiting a release later this year, he’s now attached to direct Meg, based on the Steve Alten novel. The story follows two men who team together to take down an ancient, 60-foot shark known as The Megaladon off the coast of China. Having been in the works for around two decades, we imagine the success of Jurassic World might have helped this one move forward.
Which of the above projects are you most anticipating?