Eyebrows were raised last week when Bruce Willis unexpectedly dropped out of Woody Allen’s current project. But if you were wondering whether Sylvester Stallone or one of the other Expendables would take his place, dismiss such ideas from your noggin. Steve Carell is the man stepping into the part.
As is traditional with Allen, we don’t know much of anything as to what the film will actually be about, or what Carell will be doing in it, but we do know he’ll be sharing the screen with the likes of Corey Stoll, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Ken Stott, Anna Camp, Jeannie Berlin, Stephen Kunken, Sari Lennick and Paul Schneider, and that they’re doing their thing in Los Angeles right now, before heading to New York.
Carell isn’t exactly a newcomer to Allen’s work – he was part of the ensemble for Melinda And Melinda back in 2004. More intriguingly there has been chatter that Willis didn’t simply drop out of the film because of his commitments to a Broadway production of Misery, especially since he’d already been spotted filming with Eisenberg and surely wouldn’t have booked the movie when he already knew about the play’s schedule. Still, we doubt either side will say anything about it, at least for now…
Allen’s latest should be with us next year. Carell has worked with his Anchorman director Adam McKay on financial drama **The Big Short **and is also part of the cast of Freeheld alongside Julianne Moore and Ellen Page.