Academy Award firmly in hand, The Descendants scribes Jim Rash and Nat Faxon are seeing exactly what victory brings. Increased leverage and the ability to get every stalled project rolling again. Such is the case with The Way, Way Back, their directorial debut which has been lounging in limbo for years. Now that it's finally gearing up, they don't seem to be having any trouble rounding up top shelf talent, hooking Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney, and AnnaSophia Robb(Soul Surfer). Jake Gyllenhaal was even circling it at one point.
The film still needed an A-list face to sell it, and now they have it with Variety reporting Steve Carell coming aboard, along with Toni Collette. The coming-of-age story follows a teenage boy who strikes up a friendship over the course of one summer that gives him the courage to stand up to his boozing, abusive stepfather. Carell, in what will clearly be the darkest role of his career, will play the stepdad. Collette will play the boy's mother. Carell and Collette last worked together in Little Miss Sunshine.
A number of directors have been attached at one point or another, starting with Shawn Levy and including Alexander Payne, but there's something right about Rash and Faxon taking it on themselves. Production on The Way, Way Back begins this summer.
