Between Showtime’s award-winning Masters of Sex and The Path, Michael Sheen and Michelle Monaghan have found success on the small screen in recent years, but The Hollywood Reporter brings word that the talented duo is bound for cinema once more for The Price of Admission.
Writer-director Peter Glanz is fostering development, and the elevator pitch put forward by THR evokes comparisons to Being John Malkovich and Birdman, with a dash of Charlie Kaufman’s signature identity crises thrown in for good measure. Sheen will take point as Harold Sugar, a creative struggling to cope with an existential crisis. Monaghan, meanwhile, plays his wife Eliza, who wants nothing more than to settle down and start a family, leading Harold to spiral into his own fabricated comfort zone of fictitious plays and fantastical stories.
Here’s the official pitch:
“The Price of Admission follows a playwright named Harold (Sheen), who is dealing with both a mid-life crisis and failing marriage. His wife Eliza (Monaghan), tired of playing second-fiddle to his work, wants a family. But incapable of functioning in reality, Harold submerges himself in an elaborate play about his life. Blurring the lines between fiction and reality, we follow him as he descends into madness.”
Oscar nominee Casey Affleck (Manchester By the Sea) is attached to produce, while THR notes that Radiant Films International will launch sales at the imminent European Film Market in Berlin. Expect more news to emerge regarding Glanz’s next creative venture in the coming days, then.
With the principal cast members now locked in, tell us, what are your early impressions of The Price of Admission? Indeed, do you think Peter Glanz’s latest has the potential to stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Being John Malkovich and Birdman? Drop your thoughts in the usual spot below.