Ben Stiller and writer/director Noah Baumbach must have enjoyed working together on Greenberg, as Vulture reports that they’re getting back together for While Wer’e Young, and they’re bringing James Franco along for the ride. Offers have also gone out to Greta Gerwig and Cate Blanchett to play the female leads, although currently they’re not officially attached.
While details of the script are being kept secret, ‘its about a free-spirited Brooklynite twenty-something couple (Franco and, possibly, Gerwig) who inspires an uptight documentarian (Stiller) and his wife (possibly Blanchett, pending the resolution of some scheduling issues) to loosen up with comedic consequences’. It certainly sounds like the sort of thing that Baumbach does best, mixing the New York angst of The Squid and the Whale, with the midlife musing of Greenberg.
It’s thought Blanchett’s role was originally written with Baumbach’s wife and Greenberg co-writer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, in mind, however the fact that she’s just filed for divorce from the director means she’s now out of the picture.