Mark Duplass has had busy couple of years, directing and writing three films with his brother, and starring in a number of projects including the raunchy FX comedy, “The League,” and in the upcoming sci-fi tinged indie dramedy “Safety Not Guaranteed” with Aubrey Plaza. He’s following up that role with one in another indie film with a sci-fi element, “Convention,” and he’s going to be acting opposite some pretty big names.
Duplass will be playing an inventor who unveils his latest creation at a national box convention: the five-sided box. The mysterious new design initially seems perfect, until Duplass’ inventor learns that each time its special fold is created, he rips a hole in the space-time continuum. It’s up to him and his sister to put things back together and save the role. Jennifer Aniston is circling the sister role and Ben Kingsley is officially signed up to do an as-of-yet undisclosed role, but given his usual vibe we’d wager it’s either an antagonist or a mentor.
Commercial director Justin Reardon will be making his feature film directorial debut with a script by Christopher Painter. Variety is reporting that there’s no firm start date yet, which is what’s keeping Aniston from making a decision. Watch one of Reardon’s commercials below.
In the meantime, Kingsley’s all set to start shooting the medieval period drama, “The Physician,” based on the best-selling novel by Noah Gordon about a physician, Rob Cole, traveling across Europe in the 11th century searching for the scientific truth of illness and healing in a medieval world dominated by religion and superstition. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Tom Payne, of HBO’s “Luck,” will star as the titular physician and Kingsley plays Ibn Sina, the “doctor of all doctors,” and Stellan Skarsgard, recently seen in the pop-culture juggernaut “The Avengers,” will play Cole’s first mentor, Barber. Olivier Martinez (“Unfaithful” and “S.W.A.T.”) has also signed up to play the Shah Ala ad-Daula.
Phillip Stoelzl (“North Face” and “Young Goethe In Love”) will direct with a screenplay by Jan Berger (“The Door”). “The Physician” starts production next month in Morocco and Germany.
In an exclusive, Screen Daily is reporting that “Mad Men” star Christina Hendricks and Patrick Wilson will star in the Mora Stephens-directed thriller, "Zipper." The film, which Stephens co-wrote with Joel Viretel, (the same team from 2005’s “Conventioneers”), will follow a hotshot prosecutor, Wilson, who resorts to increasingly dangerous measures to hide his addiction to high-end escorts as he is groomed for higher office. Darren Arronofsky’s Protozoa Pictures is producing.
Despite currently shooting the sequel to 2009’s “Star Trek” and having his fall schedule already booked, Simon Pegg has signed up, according to a press release, for a lead role in “Serendipity” helmer Peter Chelsom’s new film, “Hector and the Search for Happiness.” The film, based on the bestselling novel by Francois Lelord, follows “an eccentric yet irresistible London psychiatrist in crisis,” because his patients are getting happier. Filming will begin once filming has wrapped on Pegg and Edgar Wright’s “The World’s End.”