It still blows our mind, as a writer who grew up watching Hugh Laurie play the upper-class twit on British TV, that he’s gone on to a hugely successful second career as rugged, unshaven, grouchy Sherlock Holmes-based sex symbol Gregory House on the titular TV series. However, aside from his starring roles in the “Stuart Little” films, which pre-date the show, and voice-work in the terrible “Monsters Vs. Aliens,” he’s yet to convert his monumental success into Hollywood film work; he had to drop out of Bryan Singer’s “Superman Returns” due to scheduling clashes with “House,” being replaced by Frank Langella, and the less said about “Street Kings” the better.
However, the actor signed up a few weeks back to indie comedy “The Oranges,” which placed second in the 2008 Black List, which hopes to change all that. The story, a dark suburban comedy, follows the Schiff family, who live on Orange Drive, West Orange, New Jersey, and their neighbors, the Bass family, who are torn apart when David Schiff (to be played by Laurie), embarks on an affair with the Bass’s daughter Nina (to be played by “Gossip Girl” star Leighton Meester, who apparently beat out Mila Kunis for the part).
It sounds not unlike “American Beauty,” but we just flicked through the script quickly, and it seems closer in tone to “Election,” or, with its wisecracking teen narrator, even “Juno.” The project just added a brace of new cast members, in the extremely promising shapes of Catherine Keener, Adam Brody, Alia Shawkat and Allison Janney.
Keener will play Paige Schiff, Laurie’s character’s wife, “a Christmas-aholic who conducts a semi-professional caroling group,” according to the script (yeah, it’s quirky). Shawkat, still best known for playing Maebe on “Arrested Development,” will play their daughter Vanessa, who serves as the story’s narrator, and Brody, a charismatic presence who, like Laurie, hasn’t had much success on the big screen, will play their son Toby, who also falls for Nina. Finally, the great, great, Allison Janney, who should really be in every movie, plays Nina’s mother Carol, a therapist.
Like we said, it’s an extremely promising cast, and the indie credentials of producers Anthony Bregman, Glen Basner and Leslie Urdang, who between them have been responsible for the likes of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Thumbsucker” and the upcoming “Rabbit Hole,” are pretty strong. TV director Julian Farino, who’s been behind nearly 25 episodes of “Entourage,” takes the helm. The project starts filming at the end of the month, so we’d be very surprised if this didn’t end up at Sundance next year.