While he’d already appeared in the likes of Roger Dodger, The Village and Cursed, the first time people really started paying attention to Jesse Eisenberg was with Noah Baumbach’s 2005 flick, The Squid And The Whale, where he played a fictionalised version of the director in a movie inspired by Baumbach’s experiences growing up.
Now it appears he may be reuniting to Noah for When We’re Young, as the LA Times reports that Eisenrberg is in talks for the movie (although at this stage it’s all unofficial, st the paper got their story from someone who isn’t allowed to talk about it publicly). They also suggest Naomi Watts could join him, but once again she’s not signed up yet.
Baumbach’s independently financed film is about a 40-ish childless couple that begins feeling alienated from their friends as those friends start to procreate, and strike up an unlikely friendship with a younger couple. Ben Stiller, who starred in Baumbach’s last film, Greenberg, will the male of the older couple. At one point, Cate Blanchett was in talks for the older woman, while James Franco was going to be the younger man, but they’ve dropped out and it seems Watts and Eisenberg could be taking those roles. There’s still no news on who will be the younger female.
If Jesse does come onboard it suggests the movie won’t shoot until the autumn at the earliest, as Eisenberg will be working on Woody Allen’s new movie voer the summer.