After reigniting his career with "Arrested Development," Jason Bateman has pivoted toward being a filmmaker. Earlier this year he dropped his foul mouthed feature directorial debut "Bad Words," and he’s already set to direct "The Family Fang" starring Nicole Kidman. And another project is coming that will find him both behind and in front of the camera.
Over at Universal, Bateman has signed up to direct and star in "an FBI-themed wedding comedy." David Bar Katz penned the screenplay, and the reason this sentence is ending so soon, is that plot details have not been released. [LA Times]
"Jurassic World" got a bit bigger, adding James Dumont to the cast of Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Vincent D’Onofrio and Irrfan Khan. He’ll be playing "Corporal Dooley, a USO envoy" in the Colin Trevorrow directed movie. [THR]
Famke Janssen and AnnaSophia Robb will lead "Jack Of The Red Hearts." The indie drama follows "a teenage con artist who tricks a desperate mother into hiring her as a live-in companion for her autistic daughter." Sounds like there will be some lessons learned here. Janet Grillo directs. [Deadline]
Nick Offerman is joining Kyle Gallner, Olivia Thirlby, Molly C. Quinn, Frances Conroy, Paget Brewster, Josh Brener and Brendan Sexton III in "Welcome To Happiness." The drama, which is already shooting, follows "a children’s book author with a secret door in his closet." [Variety]
Ben Wheatley‘s "High Rise" keeps getting better and better. With Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller, Jeremy Irons, James Purefoy, Elisabeth Moss and Luke Evans already on board, the film has now added "Nymphomaniac" star Stacy Martin. Based on the J.G. Ballard novel of the same name, the movie will chronicle the unnerving tale of life in a modern tower block running out of control. Martin is currently filming Matteo Garrone‘s "The Tale Of Tales," and will come aboard Wheatley’s movie when production starts in July. [Screen Daily]
Michael Lerner, Kevin Dunn, and Zach Knighton have joined Mickey Rourke, Emma Roberts, Nat Wolff and Sarah Silverman in "Ashby." The movie will track "the relationship between neighbours Ed Wallis, a high school student (Wolff) and Ashby, a retired CIA assassin (Rourke) who only has a few months left to live." Production starts this week. [Screen Daily]