Over the last 18 months, Jeremy Renner has signed himself up for an almost farcical amount of movies, hoping to use his Hurt Locker success to propel him onto the A-list. It quickly became apparent he wouldn’t be able to do them all, especially when big studio projects loomed (Mission: Impossible IV, The Avengers, Bourne Legacy) and ensured he’d have to drop out of some of his smaller movies.
That’s happened with Better Living Through Chemistry, as Variety reports that Sam Rockwell in in talks to take on the lead role that was once going to be Renner’s.
Sam Rockwell will play a small-town pharmacist stuck in a loveless marriage, and so he decides to embark on an affair with the town slut, a trophy wife played by Jennifer Garner. The two get hooked on prescription drugs, and in an narcotics-induced haze, decide to murder the woman’s husband.
Michelle Monaghan will play Sam Rockwell’s distant wife, while Judi Dench has been set up as the narrator (nice easy payday for her then!). Geoff Moore and David Posamentier, who wrote the black listed screenplay, will make their directorial debut with the project.