With musical adaptation Rock Of Ages about to worry cinema sound systems in the coming weeks, director Adam Shankman is getting ready to make his next project, comedy drama This Is Where I Leave You. And he’s now got several actors in talks for the lead roles, with Jason Bateman, Zac Efron, Goldie Hawn and Leslie Mann all looking to make deals.
Jonathan Tropper, who became known for a new version of Harvey that had Steven Spielberg interested in directing, has adapted his own novel for the script. It revolves around four very different siblings who come home to sit Shiva for their recently deceased dad. Since the Jewish tradition of honouring the dead involves staying in the home for seven days, the foursome (with Hawn as the mother and the others as three of the siblings) is essentially trapped together and old skeletons come rattling out of the closet.
With interest levels high on this one, more casting is already coming to life. The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Jason Sudeikis and Rock veteran Malin Akerman are already set to join the others. Akerman will play Bateman's wife, who is having an affair with his boss (Sudeikis). If everyone signs on, it'll be reunions all over the place as Efron starred for Shankman in Hairspray and Sudeikis and Bateman worked together on Horrible Bosses. Oh, and Mann was Bateman's wife in The Change-Up.
Rock Of Ages will hit our screens on June 13. We expect This Is Where I Leave You to contain 100 per cent fewer leather pants scenes.