In career that has seemed design to up the level of depression audiences incur after each new feature, Babel and 21 Grams director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is headed into wildly different territory for his next project. Coming off the dour Javier Bardem-led drama Biutiful, the helmer has signed on to a — wait for it — full-fledged comedy.
You are indeed reading that correctly, as THR lets us know the director has written the project with Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo. Titled Birdman, it’s another independent feature and one that follows “a former actor, who once played an iconic superhero, who mounts a Broadway play in a bid to reclaim past glory.” Brandon Routh, are you out there?
All kidding aside, this is a wild career shift for the director, who is also developing the Sean Penn-led Red Flag and the Leonardo DiCaprio-led wilderness drama The Revenant. This new project, however, will take place over three days in just one location as our lead deals with his “family, career and his own sanity,” in what we assume is comedic way. Perhaps this major change will be a needed kickstart for the helmer, who hasn’t directed a project in a couple of years.
Production begins this March for a likely 2014 release.
Are you looking forward to Inarritu’s genre change?