Oscar Issac is busy post Star War, with two new roles announced in the last 48 hours, he will join Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway in James Gray’s Armageddon Time, and star in the Lionsgate thriller London from director Ben Stiller.
Here’s the information on Armageddon Time….
Writer-director James Gray is assembling an impressive cast for his new movie Armageddon Time, as Oscar Isaac and Oscar winners Robert De Niro, Anne Hathaway and Donald Sutherland have joined the starry ensemble, which also includes two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett.
Armageddon Time is described as a coming-of-age film based on Gray’s own childhood memories of growing up in Queens, New York in the mid-1980s. The period drama draws on Gray’s time at the Kew-Forest School, a private school where Fred Trump served on the board and Donald Trump was once a student, and the story is said to explore friendship and loyalty against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan‘s 1980 presidential campaign. As such, the film is very different than Gray’s recent work, but it certainly sounds interesting to me, and I’m eager to find out who will be playing the school’s principal, who’s said to be a central character.
Gray will direct from his own original screenplay, and Rodrigo Teixeira (Ad Astra) will produce via his RT Features, while Lourenço Sant’Anna and Rodrigo Gutierrez will serve as executive producers. Because Armageddon Time is such an intimate, personal project for Gray, the director aims to shoot on location in New York as soon as it’s safe to do so. CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and will represent the film’s domestic distribution rights, while Wild Bunch International will handle international rights and introduce the film to buyers at the upcoming virtual Cannes market.
And on London….
The film is based on a new short story from bestselling crime writer Jo Nesbo, author of The Snowman, Headhunters, and The Son. Isaac obtained the rights in a competitive situation and will produce via his Mad Gene Media banner along with his longtime manager Jason Spire. Stiller and his producing partner Nicky Weinstock will produce for Red Hour, while Nesbo will executive produce alongside Niclas Salomonsson.
There are no plot details yet, but I dig the idea of Isaac teaming with Stiller, who has been impressed me as a director and doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves, especially when you consider that his first four films were Reality Bites, The Cable Guy, Zoolander and Tropic Thunder. Sure, the Zoolander sequel was terrible, but Stiller quickly redeemed himself behind the camera, winning a DGA Award for directing Showtime’s limited series Escape at Dannemora starring Benicio del Toro, Paul Dano and Patricia Arquette. The show also earned him a a pair of Emmy nominations, including his first for directing. He also won an Emmy more than 25 years ago as a writer on The Ben Stiller Show.
It is good to be in demand, and we look forward to going back to the cinema soon!
