Funnywoman Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) appears to in negotiations to join Richard Linklater‘s Where’d You Go, Bernadette. The film – which will star 2-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett – is readying to go before cameras this summer and is based on Maria Semple’s best-selling novel. Holly Gent Palmo and Vince Palmo penned the latest version of the script while the (500) Days of Summer team of Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber wrote the first version. Deadline was the first to report Wiig’s potential involvement.
The story focuses on mother, Bernadette (Blanchett) who goes missing just as she’s intended to lead a family voyage to Antarctica to celebrate her daughter’s graduation from junior high school. Wiig appears in contention to portray stay-at-home mom Audrey, Bernadette’s uptight and combative Seattle neighbor who takes measures to humiliate and other make matters difficult for her. Complicating matters is Audrey’s son attends schools with Bee, Bernadette’s daughter.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette marks Linklater’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning Boyhood (2014) and last year’s Everybody Wants Some!!; as with the latter film, Bernadette will be produced by Megan Ellison of AnnaPurna Pictures.
Wiig would become to second to formally join the film and joins an ever-growing body of screen work for the former Saturday Night Live alum. Since starring and co-writing (and earning an Oscar nod for such) the 2011 blockbuster comedy Bridesmaids, Wiig has appeared in acclaimed art-house titles such as Welcome to Me and Nasty Baby as well as big-budget items like the Oscar-nominated The Martian for director Ridley Scott and last year’s all-female Ghostbusters reboot. This year, Wiig will seen on screen in Alexander Payne’s Downsizing (opposite The Martian‘s Matt Damon) and be heard in Despicable Me 3. She is also attached to join Hollywood legend Jack Nicholson in Paramount’s recently announced English-language remake of the Oscar-nominated German hit Toni Erdmann.
Stay tuned.