Ed Helms Joins Joe Carnahan’s Stretch

I continue to feel that Ed Helms is better than the material he’s been offered in recent years. He’s certainly better than The Hangover franchise, and more interesting than his Office character. Maybe he will finally get some material worthy of him as he joins Joe Carnahan’s upcoming film Stretch, alongside Patrick Wilson.

Ed Helms has signed on to Stretch following the delay of Warner Brothers’ reboot of Vacation. The film follows a chauffeur (Patrick Wilson) deeply in debt who winds up driving around a mysterious billionaire. Things go bad, though, and the chauffeur apparently gets involved in some of the billionaire’s nefarious doings. Helms, rather against type, will play the billionaire.

Nothing has yet been revealed of what genre this film can expected to fall into. Carnahan’s directing credits include the more comedic action films Smokin’ Ace and The A-Team, but Stretch is being produced by Jason Blum, who also produced Paranormal Activity and Insidious. So this could go very thriller-ish, very comedic, or very dark. Or, perhaps, all three.

Certainly Ed Helms is an interesting choice to play a ‘mysterious billionaire.’ Given his track record of playing likable schlubs in The Office, The Hangover series and films like Cedar Rapids, he’s not quite what I would call a billionaire type. But maybe that will be beneficial, both to Helms and to the film. Helms proved he was a top-notch actor in Jeff, Who Lives At Home.

The combination of Helms and Patrick Wilson is enough to get me interested in Stretch. Both are highly likable actors often relegated to secondary characters. It will be pleasant to see them play off each other, whether in a comedic or more dramatic way. We’ll have to wait and see what Carnahan and Co. have up their sleeves for this one.