Disney is determined to get Peter Hedges’s next film, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, off the ground by early next year, and might just do so now that Jennifer Garner is attaching herself to the project, insiders tell Vulture. Earlier today it was reported that she was also in talks to co-star in the thriller Better Living Through Chemistry, and sources tell us it’s not clear which she’d shoot first.
Just like in his Oscar-nominated screenplay for About a Boy, Hedges (who also directed Dan in Real Life) will again be tackling the difficulties of tween boyhood. The modern-day fable Green centers around a child-prodigy musician and his parents: Garner would play the mother, and we hear an offer is out to Mark Wahlberg to star opposite her as the dad, though he’s expected to pass. (Vulture also hears that the de-bearded — and de-crazied? — Joaquin Phoenix is on the “next step†of candidates to be offered the part if Wahlberg does say no.) As for who will play the titular Green, they’re looking for a new face in a national talent search. So, as per the casting notice, do you have a son between the ages of 9 and 12, “with longish hair and warm, curious eyes†? Are his eyes “somehow both innocent and wise� Even better, is he a drummer? Well then get those head shots out!
Interestingly, the music-prodigy fable is based on an original idea by its producer, Ahmet Zappa, son of the late Frank Zappa. We wonder where he ever came up with it.