While all eyes have been on his upcoming satirical comedy The Menu, writer/director Alexander Payne has a new project in the works which not only has been acquired by Netflix but has also landed Doctor Strange and Hannibal vet Mads Mikkelsen in the lead role, according to Deadline.
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The film, written by Erlend Loe (Nord) and directed by the mastermind behind Election and Sideways, is being described as a father/daughter story in which a Danish journalist takes a road trip with his teenage daughter across the U.S. as he works on a story for a newspaper.
Netflix is hoping to release the project next year in time for awards season, with a tentative fall 2020 release planned and shooting set to begin on the film in Sweden, Denmark and various parts of the U.S. next month. The film is set to be produced by Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa for Bona Fide Productions as well as Lizette Jonjic for Zentropa Productions.
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Though this untitled road trip project is being announced after his previously announced The Menu, the other project, which is set to star Emma Stone (The Favourite) and Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel), is still being shopped around to studios, whereas with Netflix’s acquisition of the new project, he will go to work on it first.
Payne has seen almost exclusive acclaim in his over 20 years in the industry, beginning with the 1996 comedy Citizen Ruth and following it up with 1999’s Election, for which he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, and going on to write and direct the Golden Globe-nominated About Schmidt, the Oscar-winning Sideways and The Descendants and the Oscar-nominated Nebraska.
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