So, here we are, nearly four years after it was first announced, and still not much happening with "Pierre Pierre." Okay, something is happening, but the movie is still moving along at an unhurried pace, and it's now swapping stars.
The long attached Jim Carrey — who last we heard was gearing up to shoot this thing this summer — has dropped out, and in his stead former Mr. Katy Perry aka Russell Brand has stepped in. To recap, the script by Edwin Cannistraci and Frederick Seton made the Black List in 2007, and Jason Reitman was first attached to direct, before Larry Charles ("Borat," "Bruno") signed on in 2010. Since not much has happened, thankfully the basic concept has stayed the same through all this development.
The film follows a nihilistic, constantly-smoking, foul-mouthed Frenchman who is hired to transport the Mona Lisa after a theft from Paris to London, a gig he takes on so he can finally move out of his parents' house. Along the way he tangles with a French police inspector, a serial killer named Pigeonshit and his mother, who also happens to own a brothel. And yes, this is R-rated material through and through, so right up the alley for both Charles and Brand, giving them plenty of opportunity to be unhinged.
Of couse, if/when this incarnation will happen remains to be seen. Brand appears to be free at the moment, as is Charles so perhaps the timing is right. But this movie has seen pleny of windows of opportunity come and go over the last few years who knows what it needs to finally get it greenlit. We'll see. [Variety]