Brett Ratner’s progress on action comedy thriller **Tower Heis****t **really does seem to have kicked into high gear since he found a script that worked and snagged the likes of Ben Stiller, Alan Alda and, most recently, Eddie Murphy for lead roles. Now he’s adding to that cast with Precious star Gabourey Sidibe and Observe and Report’s Michael Pena.
For those who haven’t been keeping up with** Tower Heist**’s progress, here’s the rough plot: a group of employees in a luxury high-rise apartment building discover that their pension funds are mysteriously missing, drained dry by a smarmy Wall Street fat cat (Alda), who is now living in the place under house arrest after being found out for corporate crime.
But getting their money back won’t be so easy as the workers (led by manager Stiller) will need to run a seriously complicated con job/heist to get their dosh back. Sidibe and Pena are playing members of the team, while Murphy is appearing as a safe cracking expert who agrees to help out, but has a dubious ulterior motive. You know, besides crime.
With Jeff Nathanson’s script in hand, Ratner is aiming to slide behind the camera starting next month.