Church Says We Bought A Zoo

And he's got some Killer Joe, too...

Church Says We Bought A Zoo

by James White |
Published on

Cameron Crowe has just added to the menagerie he’s slowly building to star in his next film,** We Bought a Zoo**, with Thomas Haden Church signing on.

Zoo has been adapted from Benjamin Zee’s true-life memoir about his family’s decision to sink their live savings into buying the decaying Dartmoor Zoological Park, with a mission to restore the place and save the animals. While the park alone would be enough for many to deal with, Mee also had to struggle through his wife’s decline and death from cancer.

Matt Damon is already aboard to play Mee and while Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the initial draft of the script, Crowe has been busy giving it a polish to fit his style. There’s no word in Variety’s story over what role Church will play, though we do know that the park came with some quirky staff and that Mee and co had to hire some new workers, so perhaps he’ll be a part of either the outgoing or incoming team. After all, Haden Church did great work with animals in George of the Jungle, which is probably why he was hired. Or possibly not. We Bought a Zoo is scheduled for a December 2011 release date.

But what we do know is the other role the actor has just landed, which he’ll work on before Zoo. He’s signed to play Emile Hirsch’s father in the black comedy Killer Joe from William Friedkin.

Joe follows a detective who doubles as an assassin (Matthew McConaughey) and who is hired by Hirsch to see that his mother dies to secure an insurance payout.

The pic starts shooting next month in New Orleans.

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