Richard Linklater swaps fish fantasy for university drama
|
Version 0 of 1. Richard Linklater is at perhaps the highest ebb of an already successful directorial career, riding off the back of his Before Sunrise trilogy and his current, much-admired release Boyhood. All eyes are on his next project, and sources tell the Hollywood Reporter that it's to be That's What I'm Talking About, a university drama set in the 1980s. It's been reported that Linklater is to leave behind The Incredible Mr Limpet, a project he's been attached to since 2011. It's a remake of the 1964 film of the same name, about a man who falls into the sea and turns into a fish – in the original, he then goes on to aid the US Navy in their efforts fighting the Nazis. Linklater will instead focus his attentions on That's What I'm Talking About, a tale of college freshmen trying to make it onto the baseball team, which is apparently based on Linklater's own life. The director is also attached to direct Larry's Kidney, a comedy starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis about a man who travels to China to source a kidney for his brother. The Incredible Mr Limpet remake meanwhile, already one of the more tortuous Hollywood projects of recent years, enters another phase of delays. Initially mooted in 1996, Jim Carrey was attached to star, and $10m was reportedly spent on test footage involving Carrey's face being motion-captured and transplanted onto a CGI fish. The footage was deemed a disaster, with comedian Patton Oswalt saying earlier this year that director Brad Bird had told him "it was the most horrifying thing he'd ever seen." Mike Judge, creator of King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead, was then attached to direct, followed by Enchanted director Kevin Lima, and finally Linklater earlier this year. Various actors have been linked to the lead since Carrey, including Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman and Kevin Hart. |