Have you ever met someone you clicked with only to find out they were a former assassin? That’s the plight Anna Kendrick finds herself in the upcoming film Mr. Right. The Oscar-nominated actress has joined the cast of the romantic thriller as a young woman unlucky in love when she meets and connects with a former gun-for-hire, to be played by Sam Rockwell. His dark past comes back to haunt the budding lovers as they fight to survive early romantic jitters as well as their lives, assuming. The film is set to be directed by Paco Cabezas (Tokerav) from a script by the suddenly quite in demand Max Landis (Chroncile.)
At first glance, it appears that Mr. Right is traversing in well-greased terrain. Curious as that movies that mix romantic comedy with the spy game have a relatively inconsistent track record in appealing to audiences. For every blockbuster like the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie vehicle Mr. & Mrs. Smith, there’s a number of forgettable also-rans in the genre hybrid including the Ashton Kutcher-Katherine Heigl flick Killers, Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz and Duplicity with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen that all tanked at the box office. Mr. Right‘s log line even bares similarities to another film written by Landis (son of Animal House director Jon Landis) – the upcoming American Ultra, which pits Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart as young lovers when it’s discovered one of them is a sleeper spy. Still, given the idiosyncratic casting choices, Mr. Right may prove a smart and fun diversion in the end.
This is latest bit of casting news for the very much in demand Kendrick as the actress will be seen on screens in no fewer than nine movies in the next two years. Those include three films that premiered at Sundance this past January – Life After Beth opposite Dane DeHaan (The Amazing Spider-man 2), The Voices opposite Ryan Reynolds, and Joe Swanberg’s Happy Christmas opposite Lena Dunham. She’s also set to become the musical queen, appearing in two theater adaptations, both big (Rob Marshall’s Into the Woods opposite Meryl Streep) and small (Richard LaGravenese’s The Last 5 Years opposite Smash star Jeremy Jordan) and one sequel, reprising her role as a cappella champ Becca in Pitch Perfect 2 out next summer. Rockwell is no less busy. After brief awards considerations talk in the 2013 crossover hit The Way, Way Back, he will next appear in the Sundance comedy Laggies opposite Keira Knightley and will star in the updated version of the classic horror film Poltergeist. Hopefully, to prepare for the chemistry required for Mr. Right, both Kendrick and Rockwell just finished production on Joe Swanberg’s latest, the drama Digging for Fire, due out sometime in 2015.
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