Movies about the failing economy are all the rage these days. Ridley Scott is choosing to tackle it via a board game. Baz Luhrmann plans to teach us a lesson by remaking “The Great Gatsby.” Fox is doing the obvious and just developing a sequel to “Wall Street.” But one director is planning on tackling it by introducing science and satire.
According to Variety, Paul Giamatti, Sacha Baron Cohen and Reese Witherspoon have signed on to star in Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing.” Giamatti will play a man who decides to escape his economic woes by undergoing a process to shrink himself. Depending on which Variety story you read, Witherspoon either plays a woman he meets after shrinkage, or his wife who decides to stay normal sized at the last minute. Cohen will employ his manic comedic skills and play a dual role: a tiny Spaniard, and his normal sized brother and business partner.
No one will be officially signed until Payne (”Sideways”) finishes his screenplay, which he is penning alongside Jim Taylor. Variety is predicting some doom and gloom when it comes to where the film will find its financing. Payne has a first-look deal with Fox Searchlight, but the special effects budget may be too big for the studio to manage.
Here’s where you can make all your “can’t they just shrink it?” jokes, while pondering how it might be cheaper to live as a shrunken person. Oddly, it sounds more sensible than anything we’ve seen from Wall Street yet.
MTV readers, are you looking forward to seeing Giamatti and Witherspoon reunite with their old friend Alexander Payne? Or does the idea of a tiny Giamatti just scare you off this economic satire?
