The Weinstein Company has set direct Neil Burger (Divergent) to direct The Intouchables, which already has Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart attached to headline. The film is the English-language remake of the blockbuster French film, which original starred Francois Cluzet and Omar Sy (Jurassic World). Jon Hartmere adapted the screenplay which will likely be set in New York and the film is looking for production start in January 2017. Deadline first reported this story.
The original 2011 French title centered around an aristocrat who hires a young man from the projects to become his caregiver after becoming a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident. The original film was a smash hit worldwide, earning over $400 million at the box office and was released stateside by The Weinstein Company – $10 million of that gross was from North American box office receipts, a healthy foreign take in the United States by today’s metrics. Quickly thereafter, the distributor acquired remake rights for the title.
The pair of Cranston and Hart may feel fresh as both are currently in career upswings. Cranston, following his multiple Emmy-winning run on the seminal series Breaking Bad, followed that success up by receiving his first Oscar nomination earlier this year for the Hollywood biopic Trumbo. He also won Tony Award prior to that for his acclaimed turn as LBJ in the play All the Way, which was adapted by HBO for a made-for-TV movie earlier this year; Cranston is currently up for an Emmy for that performance. Hart recently appeared in the comedy blockbusters Central Intelligence and Ride Along 2, voiced in the Illumination smash The Secret Life of Pets and is nearly complete on Kevin Hart: What Now?, a forthcoming stand-up feature.
Burger previously directed the hits Divergent and the Bradley Cooper vehicle Limitless. He made his directorial debut on the acclaimed period indie The Illusionist starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti.
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