It looks like Rachel McAdams is going to continue the one-for-them-one-for-me approach. The actress has been oscillating between more indie minded/less commercial fare (relatively speaking) like "The Lucky Ones," "Midnight In Paris" (who would've predicted it would have been a smash hit?) and "State Of Play" and bigger/schlockier stuff like "Sherlock Holmes" and this year's "The Vow." But it seems the actress is getting a bit more risky and frisky. She's currently lensing "Passion" with Brian De Palma and the provocative first image was unveiled recently, and it looks like the rest of her year will be dominated by a rom-com and a thriller.
First up, McAdams replaces the previously attached Zooey Deschanel in "About Time," the latest from "Love Actually" writer/director Richard Curtis, that tells the story of a man who can time-travel who ends up meeting the girl of the dreams. McAdams will lead the pic so-starring with Domhall Gleeson, with Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander, Margot Robbie, Lydia Wilson and Vanessa Kirby rounding out the cast. Filming kicks off in June and considering McAdams is recently riding high off the romantic "The Vow," expectations will likely be up there for this one.
Once she's done falling in love, she'll switch gears in September for Anton Corbijn's long developing John Le Carré adaptation "A Most Wanted Man." In the works for a couple of years now, the story follows a half-Chechen, half-Russian man who illegally immigrates to Hamburg and spins a web of intrigue that manages to involve a young British banker and a female lawyer. Philip Seymour Hoffman came aboard in February in a supporting role with Corbijn long saying that Herbert Grönemeyer ("Das Boot") would take the lead. Granted, having a lesser known/unknown actor in the feature role would make the pic harder to finance, but adding McAdams would certainly add some star power along with Hoffman and we're guessing she'll play the lawyer. Should it all work out, the pic will shoot in September.
So a pretty nice slate ahead for McAdams, which also includes the still unreleased untitled romance or whatever it is directed by Terrence Malick. We've lamented that some of McAdams' recent projects haven't matched her skill, but it looks like the tide is shifting. [THR]