Casting News: Sandler & Aniston Head To Netflix, Jackman Gets A 'Bad Education', Stan Will 'Beat The Reaper'
Several actors are jumping aboard a few high-profile projects, and we've rounded them all up for your convenience. Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston are teaming for a new Netflix movie, Hugh Jackman might join Bad Education from a producer of La La Land, and Avengers co-star Sebastian Stan will team with director Gore Verbinski for Beat the Reaper.
Murder Mystery
Adam Sandler has already made a slew of films for Netflix, and now he's getting Jennifer Aniston involved. The Tracking Board reports Sandler and Aniston will star in Netflix's Murder Mystery, a comedy directed by Anne Fletcher, from a script by James Vanderbilt. Murder Mystery will be a reunion for Sandler and Aniston – they both appeared in the 2011 comedy Just Go With It – a film I didn't even remember existed until I Googled it. Per The Tracking Board, "Sandler will play a NYC cop who finally takes his wife (Aniston) on a long promised European trip. A chance meeting on the flight gets them invited to an intimate family gathering on the Super Yacht of elderly billionaire Malcolm Quince. When Quince is murdered, they become the prime suspects in a modern day whodunit."
I'm hesitant to pay attention to any sort of Netflix movie starring Adam Sandler. But then again, The Meyerowitz Stories was a Netflix movie that featured Sandler, and it was fantastic – and Sandler was great in it. Maybe Murder Mystery will turn out okay in the end.
Bad Education
Song-and-dance Wolverine Hugh Jackman has a new project lined-up. Variety reports Jackman is about to board the film Bad Education. Mike Makowsky, who wrote I Think We're Alone Now, penned the script, and Thoroughbreds director Cory Finley will helm. There are no concrete details about Bad Education, but reports indicate the film is similar to Alexander Payne's 1999 comedy Election. There was a 2004 Pedro Almodóvar film called Bad Education, but this film is (thankfully) not a remake of that. Fred Berger, who produced La La Land, is set to produce.
Beat The Reaper
I saved the best for last. The Tracking Board broke the news that Sebastian "Bucky" Stan will star in Gore Verbinski's new film Beat the Reaper. I'm pretty darn excited about this, because for one thing, that title rules – Beat the Reaper! For another, I'm a Gore Verbinski fan and after A Cure for Wellness, I'm willing to watch anything he directs. The film will be adapted from the book by Josh Bazell. Here's the book's synopsis:
Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan's worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he'd prefer to keep hidden. Whether it's a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwna is a hitman for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Relocation Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he's the last person you want to see in your hospital room. Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown's new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might-just might-be the same person...Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours-and somehow beat the reaper.
Yep, let's do this. Let's Beat the Reaper.