Michael Winterbottom is a man who likes to push boundaries with movies like A Mighty Heart, 9 Songs and The Killer Inside Me, so you wouldn’t really expect him to be teaming up with Jack Black, who’s more known for gurning at the camera than anything else. However it’s just been announced that the duo are getting together for Bailout, with Ealing Metro and Presience (who helped pay for The King’s Speech), handling financing and international sales of the flick.
Based on the best-selling and internationally acclaimed novel The Financial Lives Of The Poets by Jess Walter (who has also written the screenplay), Bailout (working title) follows the fortunes of Matt Prior (Black) who wakes up to find himself jobless, crippled with debt, convinced his wife is having an affair and two weeks away from losing his home.
Matt needs a solution, which comes in the form of two losers he meets late one night at his local supermarket when they offer him a bizarre but interesting business opportunity.
Michael Winterbottom says, Jess Walter is an extremely talented writer. Bailout is a very funny account of one man caught up in his own financial crisis a rare feat of being funny and true at the same time.
It’s sounds like something a little more challenging for Black, although with the backup of comedy to help him out. Casting is currently underway for the other roles in the flick.
The film should start shooting in August.