While he’s been executive producing Hung on HBO, it’s been five years since Alexander Payne’s had a movie in cinemas. That film was of course Sideways, which enjoyed immense amounts of critical and commercial acclaim. The last we heard he was working on a film adaptation of Downsizing, about a man who deliberately shrinks himself to become a little person in order to have an easier life.
However despite having actors attached including Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon and Sacha Baron Cohen, it seems the expense of the project has meant he’s had to put things on hold for a while (however the project isn’t dead, despite what’s been reported elsewhere, it just needs more prep time).
Now it’s been announced that Payne has will be making The Descendants first, an adaptation of the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The Hawaii set book tells the story of a wealthy landowner whose wife is in a coma and about to have her life support swtiched off, and so he takes his two daughters on a search for his wife’s lover in the hopes of keeping his family together and giving the other man a chance to say goodbye.
Payne’s planning to shoot The Descendants either late this year or early next year, although so far he hasn’t cast any of the roles.