Anthony Hopkins & Donald Sutherland Eyeing Lead Role
Update: THR confirms this report.
It would seem that for now, Noah Baumbach‘s mooted next film, “While We’re Young” is going on the backburner. With Ben Stiller long attached to the project, the film has seen Greta Gerwig and James Franco come and go, while during the spring, Jesse Eisenberg and Naomi Watts were reported to be in talks. But they don’t seem to have panned out either and moreover, it appears that Baumbach himself has turned his attention to a different project that has been kicking around Hollywood for a while now.
Back in 2002, the powerhouse trio of producer Scott Rudin, director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter David Hare teamed up for an adaptation of Jonathan Frazen‘s celebrated “The Corrections” over at Paramount. Well, the project never materialized, but it appears there is new life. Though he cautions it’s “early days,” Baz Bamigboye over at the Daily Mail reveals that Baumbach is now adapting the book for an HBO dramatic series — though whether it will be a mini-series like “Mildred Pierce” or new program altogether isn’t quite clear.
The book falls somewhere between satire and drama, centering on the dysfunctional Lambert family, chronicling the individual woes of its members in a tale that spans New York, St. Jude, Philadelphia and Vilnius, Lithuania. And it should be no surprise that the National Book Award-winning work has some big talent circling it. Anthony Hopkins and Donald Sutherland are apparently both interested in talking the lead role of Alfred Lambert, the family patriarch who suffers from Parkinson’s-induced dementia. It’s certainly a meaty role, and with four other family members to be cast as well, this could draw a pretty intriguing ensemble.
But again, this seems to be pretty early and as always, things could shift and change at any moment. But once again, it appears that HBO is providing a harbor for great talent, and we’ll be watching to see how this shapes up.