It's official. Hollywood Reporter is announcing that actor Josh Gad has signed on to play the late film critic Roger Ebert in the project Russ & Roger. We first reported on this earlier in the year, and are following up with the confirmation. STX Entertainment is developing the comedy focused around the film critic and filmmaker Russ Meyer, to be played by Will Ferrell. Michael Winterbottom will be directing, from a script by Chris Cluess. THR doesn't mention a start date, but this is the kind of news that means it's happening sooner than later. Gad has been making quite a name for himself recently (he's in Pixels, Wish I Was Here, The Wedding Ringer and the upcoming Beauty and the Beast) and this sounds like a nice score. Read on.
As reported originally, Russ & Roger (originally titled Russ & Roger Go Beyond) is about the filmmaker Russ Meyer, who was a "sexploitation king" that made wild movies like Wild Gals of the Naked West and Faster Pussycat! Kill Kill!. After getting a deal at 20th Century Fox, he partnered with Roger Ebert to make the film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, which Ebert wrote the script for. If you've seen/read Life Itself, you've definitely heard Ebert talk about that chapter of his life. Fun times. Winterbottom is directing Russ & Roger, from a script by Chris Cluess and a production polish by Winterbottom, Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons. We'll be keeping an eye on this film as it comes together with Gad and Ferrell as Roger and Russ.
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