There hasn't been much in the way of updates on
Russ & Roger Go Beyond, a film based on the story of how cult director Russ Meyer and legendary film critic Roger Ebert wrote
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Will Ferrell has been set to play Meyer, and briefly it looked like Josh Gad was up for the role of Ebert. He's probably way too busy now (he's got
Beauty and the Beast coming up), but more importantly there was no director. Well now that's changed with Michael Winterbottom entering talks for the job.
Winterbottom, director of
24 Hour Party People and numerous other real-life stories, would direct the story of Meyer and Ebert's adventures in Hollywood writing the awful counter-culture flick
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Christopher Cluess, a writer on
SNL and
The Simpsons, penned the screenplay so expect plenty of laughs.
There's still the little problem of finding someone to play Ebert, a task critics are sure to watch very closely.
