Woody Allen has wasted no time in finding a replacement for Bruce Willis ahead of his new upcoming project, with Deadline reporting that the decorated filmmaker has drafted in Foxcatcher and Despicable Me alum Steve Carell to fill the vacant role.
News of Willis’ abrupt departure (firing?) came as a big shock late last week, considering that production on the Los Angeles/New York love story had barely begun in earnest. The official word is that scheduling conflicts had cropped up, specifically in relation to Willis walking the boards on Broadway, that forced him to pull out of the project at the eleventh hour. Still, the fact that the entire thing was filed away with relatively few details released suggests that there is more to this story than meets the eye.
Whatever the case, Carell’s swift casting ensures that production can continue on Woody Allen’s latest without any need for delay, and Deadline reports that the cameras are to begin rolling imminently. In typical fashion, the director’s all-new project has been kept hush-hush as it eases into development, though it’s understood to be an ensemble comedy drama – firmly in Allen’s wheelhouse, then. Though Bruce Willis may have jumped ship, the feature is still a star-studded affair, with American Ultra‘s Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg on board, along with Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Jeannie Berlin, Corey Stoll, Ken Stott, Anna Camp, Stephen Kunken, Sari Lennick and Paul Schneider.
This announcement means that, following their collaboration on 2004’s Melinda And Melinda, Steve Carell will reunite with Woody Allen for the director’s latest, which is due to open at some point in 2016.
