It’s been six years since Toni Collette and Steve Carell shared the screen in Little Miss Sunshine, but Oscar-winning writers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon look set to reunite them for directorial debut The Way, Way Back.
Rash and Faxon – who scored the golden baldie this year for co-writing The Descendants with Alexander Payne – have set up the film about a teen boy who struggles through a summer holiday while dealing with a bored, inattentive mother (Collette) and a drinking, drugging and cheating stepfather (Carell, in a role that sounds like it’ll be a real change from his usual loveable schlubs).
The two are joining a cast that already includes Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell and Annasophia Robb, with the co-directors set to kick off production this summer thanks to their script’s appearance on the 2010 Black List. They also have an untitled action comedy pitch floating around with Kristen Wiig attached to star.
Collette was most recently seen in Fright Night and has indie comedy drama Jesus Henry Christ awaiting release. She’s about to start work as Peggy Robertson on Sacha Gervasi’s Alfred Hitchcock And The Making Of Psycho, which is now going by the much more marquee-friendly length of Hitchcock.
Carell is fiendishly busy as always, with Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World and Hope Springs arriving this year, Despicable Me and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone in 2013 and roles already lined up in Charlie Kaufman’s Frank Or Francis and Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher, among others.
How will Rash fit his skyrocketing career in around his role as Dean Pelton on Community? We're not sure, but we damn well hope he finds a way.