Between this news and Robert Downey Jr’s new animation job, it’s clearly been decided that this is the day that people named Robert announce new acting gigs. Why, we see you asking with an upturned eyebrow? Simple: Robert Duvall has signed on to work with Billy Bob Thornton on the actor/writer/director’s next indie project, Jayne Mansfield’s Car.
Mansfield, as you may know, was the blonde bombshell and actress who was tragically killed at the age of 34 in a car crash in 1967. The film, however, won’t directly be about her. “It’s about a guy in between World War One and World War Two who raises a family after his wife left him for an Englishman and moved to England,” Duvall tells Entertainment Weekly. “When the wife dies, she asks to be brought back to Alabama to be buried, and at that point the character hasn’t seen her in 20 or 30 years. The two families — her original family she abandoned and her English family — meet and then things get really interesting.”
And as for the script, which Thornton wrote with Tom Epperson, Duvall claims it’s a good ‘un: “It’s another Southern tale. It puts Tennessee Williams in the back seat — it’s that brilliant.” High praise indeed! And we like what he did with the car metaphor there.
There’s no word yet on when Thornton aims to start shooting, but Duvall did reveal that he’s planning to star in the film as well as direct it.