William H Macy gives good desperation. So he seems the perfect choice to play a suicidal movie producer in The Deal.
He’ll star as Charlie Berns, a man flat out of luck and just about ready to throw it all in when he decides to cook up one last scheme to salvage his career: he’ll try and turn a period drama penned by his nephew into a mega-budget film starring a popular African-American movie star. So far, so Bowfinger, but there’s more. While shooting in Romania, the star is kidnapped and the film is shut down. But not before Berns has had a chance to win over spiky, sceptical studio suit Diedre Hearn (Lisa Kudrow) and fall in love.
Together the pair hit on one more idea – they’ll finish the film illegally and risk prison in search of an Oscar. Macy has adapted the script from Peter Lefcourt’s book along with Steven Schachter, who will also sit in the director’s chair. They kick off work in Romania in October.