Are you fascinated by the idea of freezing yourself after death so you can be awoken in years to come to see what the world is like? Do you hanker for some bored cryogenics facility worker to spout “Welcome to the WORLD OF TOMORROW!” as you pick the icicles off your nose and gulp mugs of hot chocolate made from cocoa beans harvested in orbit? Then you might be intrigued by comedy drama Freezing People Is Easy, which has Paul Rudd iced into its lead role, with Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson and Christopher Walken all in talks.
The movie’s based-on-truth plot was inspired jointly by memoir We Froze The First Man and an episode of ace US radio series This American Life, which both look at Bob Nelson, a 1960s television repairman who decided to push the boundaries of cryogenics by roping in those who wanted to be frozen post mortem. He soon learned it’s not as easy as he thought it would be…
Rudd’s pretty much locked in, as he’s been attached to the film for ages now. But director Errol Morris (switching tracks from his usual documentary filmmaking work) is looking to get the rest of the cast in place to work from Zach Helm’s script.
Wiig has a host of offers to consider post-Bridesmaids, so she might not end up joining the cast, but Wilson and Walken should be set before long. Morris wants to shoot later this year.