Elizabeth Banks will play Chris Pine’s drunk sister.
The Hollywood Reporter says that Elizabeth Banks is in talks to take on the lead female role in “Welcome to People” (Deadline, on the other hand, says it’s a done deal. Who knows). The film marks the directorial debut of Alex Kurtzmann, who with Roberto Orci has been responsible for some of the biggest hits in Hollywood over the last few years (such as “Star Trek,” “Transformers”). Chris Pine is already set to star.
The script, written by Kurtzmann, Orci, and Jody Lambert, is a departure from that kind of blockbuster territory, though. The Hollywood Reporter says Pine will play a businessman “who returns home after his estranged father’s death and discovers that he has an alcoholic sister with a 12-year-old son.” Banks will play the sister.
Banks will soon be seen going on the lam with Russell Crowe in “The Next Three Days.” She’s filming “Man on a Ledge” now, then has a whole lot of other things to do, including ”The Details” opposite Tobey Maguire and Laura Linney, “My Idiot Brother” opposite Paul Rudd. ”Tink” at Disney and the comedy ”Forever 21″ at DreamWorks.
Here’s what’s interesting about this otherwise mundane seeming piece of casting news–THR has been putting together these roundtable discussions of Oscar contenders. So far they’ve done screenwriters and actresses. You can either watch the whole interviews (which each run about an hour), or they’ve pulled some excerpts from them to watch in small bits. The actress panel is Natalie Portman, Helena Bonham Carter, Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Hilary Swank, and Amy Adams. One of their excerpts covers the question, “Are there any roles you regret passing on, or wanted and didn’t get?” Hilary Swank talks about how she read a script in August that she loved. It was going to be the directorial debut of a very succcessful writer, and it was very different material than he was known for. She said she called about the role, arranged a meeting, but never got it. They all talk about it a bit, trying to guess who got the part. Then Annette Bening notices how silent Amy Adams is, and nails it. They get the reluctant Adams to admit the truth–the part that Swank had wanted and not gotten had been offered to her, but she passed on it because she thought it wasn’t a good role for her to do while trying to adjust to being the mother of a newborn. So it appears that the role Elizabeth Swank wanted, that Kurtzmann et al wanted Amy Adams to do, finally went to Elizabeth Banks. Interesting. (you can watch the THR roundtable excerpt in question here).
