There were a number of directors who came out of Sundance with a head full of steam, but perhaps none had more heat than Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, whose teen drama Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (my review here) won two awards and looks like this year's The Fault In Our Stars. That film had a terrific ensemble of veterans and rising stars, but for Gomez-Rejon's next film he's landed a pair of big names in Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara.
Jackman and Mara will be seen later in Joe Wright's fairy tale, Pan, but now they'll reunite for Collateral Beauty, which Gomez-Rejon will direct from an Allan Loeb (Here Comes the Boom) script. The story follows a New York advertising executive who suffers a tragedy and finds his life slipping into a deep, dark depression. The indie drama is on the Cannes sales floor now and should find plenty of investors with this much talent already attached.
Coincidentally, Mara is at Cannes for the premiere of Todd Haynes' period drama, Carol, which also stars Cate Blanchett. [TheWrap]
