Casting Notes: Taylor Lautner Gets Another Action Movie; Steve Carell Books A Drama
After nearly casting him out ofNew Moonthen watching the actor become one of the movie’s biggest selling points, Summit has decided to keep on lovingTaylor Lautner. The company has bought intoCancun, an action movie with a slightly misleading title. When I see ‘Cancun’ I don’t think of a teen version of “TakenmeetsDie Hard,” which is howVarietyis describing this one.
Lautner would be “an out-of-place college kid who travels with a girl to Cancun on a break. While there, the girl and her friends are taken hostage by a drug cartel and he is forced to save them.” (That’s perTHR.) In other words, the kid is being groomed as a dreamy new action star — that’s what doing some high kicks on SNL will get you. I say put him in a ring withTony Jaaand then we’ll have a party. He won’t be in any shape to brood in the rain after that. The script is byEric ChampnellaandGrant Thompsonand production duties will be handled in part by the actor’s father,Dan Lautner.
After the break, an antidote to comedy forSteve Carell.
CarswriterDan Foglemanjust sold an as-yet untitled spec script to Warner Bros. that is being groomed as a Carell vehicle; this is just a day after there was word that he andTina Feymight once again star together, inMail-Order Groom. This one is being billed as similar in tone toLove, Actually— so, a romantic drama with some comedy elements?
Carell would be “a father whose life unravels while he deals with a marital crisis and tries to manage his relationship with his children.” Sounds more on the drama end of the scale than the comedy. I’d like to see him push that angle a little more; comics who skillfully change gears into drama can be a treat to watch. [Variety]
