Following a years of epic commercial peaks (Horrible Bosses) and deep commercial valleys (The Change-Up), Jason Bateman is returning to the small big screen. The actor has set up two indie projects: The Longest Week, co-starring Olivia Wilde, and Disconnect, which already has Alexander Skarsgard, Frank Grillo (who gives a pitch-perfect performance in Warrior), Andrea Riseborough, Colin Ford and Michael Nyqvist attached.
In The Longest Week, written and to-be-directed by Peter Glanz (who led the under-seen and extremely witty AMC Web series The Trivial Pursuits of Arthur Banks), Bateman “plays a man who lives a life of leisure in his parents’ prestigious Manhattan hotel. In the span of one week, he finds himself evicted, disinherited and in love” [Variety]. One assumes Wilde – his co-star in The Change-Up – will play the woman he falls for.
As for Henry Alex Rubin‘s Disconnect, the Andrew Stern-penned script is an ensemble piece, touching on the Internet and how it has changed, for good and ill, the way we communicate with others. Once again, the tile would suggest the ill section of the above section will play a larger role than the good section.
It’s great to have Bateman back making the low budget thinkers, lest we forget his sensational turn in Juno.
What do you think of Bateman as an actor? Dramatic actor?