This just in: The STW Daily News Round Up featuring all the news that’s fit to (digitally) print for Friday, July 1st, 2022.
There’s Something About Cameron Diaz
And that thing is… She’s back! After retiring from acting in 2014, the romcom super star has been coaxed out of retirement by the very convincing Jamie Foxx, with a little help from some other dude who’s come out of retirement himself a time or two.
Foxx recruited none other than Tom Brady to give Cameron Diaz a halftime pep talk, much of which can be found on Foxx’s Twitter feed.
Brady to Diaz: “I was talking to Jamie and he said you needed a few tips on how to un-retire,” the seven-time Super Bowl champion said. “I’m relatively successful at un-retiring.”
The project Foxx wants Cameron Diaz back in action for is titled, fittingly, Back In Action. It’s a film written and directed by Seth Gordon of Horrible Bosses fame. Though there’s been no word on precise plot details, based on the title and the Tom Brady assist, there’s clearly a meta layer at play with Diaz being “back in action.”
“Retired” actors getting back in action is hardly rare, but Cameron Diaz has been very vocal about how peaceful and centered she’s been since quitting acting. “I stopped, I really looked at my life, and I saw what I had been [missing],” she told Gwyneth Paltrow back in 2020.
Cameron Diaz noted that often actors are “infantilized,” and said that she “really needed to know that I could take care of myself, that I knew how to be an adult, that I knew how to navigate the world of the complexity of being an adult and having responsibility and putting all the pieces of my life together the way I wanted it to be put together—not the way other people thought it should go.”
Taking control of the shape and scope of one’s own existence is never a bad thing, and presumably in the past eight years the actor has come to a sense of peace about her life, identity, and career. That being said, it’s pretty exciting to have Diaz–well–back in action.
Secrets & Spies
As a part of a multi-year deal that Atlanta creator Donald Glover landed last year with Amazon Studios, the writer/actor/rapper/producer/director is creating an adaptation of the 2005 Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie vehicle Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
The series is in pre-production now with Glover in the Brad Pitt Role and Pen15‘s Maya Erskine set to take a stroll in Angelina Jolie’s shoes. The project previously boasted Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge who was replaced by Erskine after Waller-Bridge departed due to creative differences.
With that kerfuffle behind them, the show is now rounding out its cast, and news broke this week that Michaela Coel, John Turturro, and Paul Dano have all signed on for the “Married Spy vs. Spy” romp.
While there are no details on who these additions will be portraying, they will support Glover and Erskine as they navigate a marriage steeped in secrets that only becomes more complicated when they are hired by a mysterious spy agency.
As part of his overall deal with Amazon, Glover serves as the series’ co-creator and executive producer alongside Francesca Sloane, who also serves as showrunner.
The Emmy-winning Coel is best known for creating, writing, directing, and starring in the HBO limited series I May Destroy You. The multi-hyphenate also starred in Black Earth Rising and Chewing Gum, and will next be seen in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Earlier this year, Turturro starred alongside Adam Scott, Christopher Walken, Zach Cherry, and Britt Lower in the Apple thriller series, Severance. The actor is a favorite of the Coen brothers, with roles in Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and The Big Lebowski. He’s also appeared in numerous Spike Lee features, including Do The Right Thing, He Got Game, She Hate Me, and Jungle Fever.
Dano is known for his performances in There Will Be Blood, Prisoners, Love & Mercy, Swiss Army Man, Little Miss Sunshine, and now as The Riddler in The Batman. He previously received an Emmy nomination for his work on Ben Stiller’s Escape At Dannemora, in which he starred opposite Patricia Arquette and Benicio Del Toro.
There’s no release info yet about the Mr. & Mrs. Smith adaptation as it’s still in pre-production.
Mayor of HBO Town
Last year’s Mare of Easttown on HBO saw perennial Oscar favorite Kate Winslet in her first television role. It was certainly a bit of a career shift for the film heavyweight to dip her toe into the waters of prestige TV, but it was a risk that most definitely paid off in spades as the limited series proved to be immensely popular with critics, viewers, and awards ceremonies.
With such success on her first TV outing, nobody can blame Winslet for coming back for seconds. The Oscar winner (and now Emmy winner, thanks to Mare of Easttown) is heading back to HBO for another limited series, this one based on Hernan Diaz’s novel, Trust.
There’s no info just yet about casting, writing, or directing, but what’s for certain is that Winslet and Diaz will serve as executive producers.
Plot-wise, the story follows a wealthy financier who reads a novel based on his own life. Dissatisfied by his and his wife’s portrayal, he asks a secretary to ghostwrite his memoir and set the record straight. She, however, grows uncomfortably aware that he is rewriting history—and his wife’s place in it.
According to Variety, the show’s timeline will jump around a bit beginning with some pre-Great Depression opulence, tracking through the 1920’s before jumping around throughout the rest of the 20th century.
Before returning to HBO, Winslet will make a splash in her old friend’s little indie film, Jim Cameron’s Avatar: The Way Of Water, set for release on December 16, 2022.