Paul Rudd and Sam Rockwell to play brothers in feud drama as Casey Affleck takes Hulu thriller lead
Producer Kevin Walsh is lining up two star-driven projects: a suburban feud film for Paul Rudd and Sam Rockwell, and a Hulu thriller that gives Casey Affleck his first major television starring role, according to Deadline.
The film is Reasonable People, a drama to be directed by Cory Finley from his own script. Walsh is lead producer, and the script will be taken to market to find backers.
It is described as a Hatfield-McCoy-style feud in a contemporary suburb. That means two families locked in tit-for-tat revenge. The spark is brutal.
A reckless car crash leaves an architect's teenage daughter with brain damage. The driver is the son of a wealthy developer. Rudd plays the architect. Rockwell plays his drifter brother, whose arrival escalates the conflict between the families.
The television project is The Hawk, a crime thriller for Hulu written by Dave Collard. It is adapted from author Brian Haig's book series that began with The President's Assassin.
Affleck will play Sean Drummond, a JAG lawyer — a lawyer serving in the military justice system — called in by the CIA after six people are shot dead in a private mansion in Washington DC. Drummond learns the killings were a warning shot. He then has 72 hours to untangle a conspiracy and stop a national crisis.
On the business side, Hulu has committed to shoot a pilot and has ordered additional scripts, with a decision on a first season expected by January, according to Deadline. Executive producers include Walsh, Collard, Affleck, Davey Holmes, Danny Feldheim, Patrick McNamara and Rob Hochberg. The show sits within a TV slate organised under Feldheim, who heads television for Walsh's company.
The pairings renew established relationships. Walsh previously ran film for Ridley Scott's Scott Free before launching his own company with Apple as its base. He produced Manchester by the Sea, for which Affleck won an Oscar, and later reunited with him on The Instigators.
Walsh arrived with broader momentum. His Sian Heder-directed film Being Heumann opened the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, 10 September at Roy Thomson Hall. The film stars Ruth Madeley and chronicles disability rights leader Judy Heumann and activists occupying the Federal Building in San Francisco for 28 days to press for accessibility legislation, according to Deadline. It played in the Gala Presentations — Opening Night section and is listed for release on 6 November with streaming from 13 November, according to The Hollywood Reporter. His coming slate also includes Foster the Snowman from director Hikari and That Man From Rio from director Justin Lin, starring Sydney Sweeney.
For fans, this means two very different uses of familiar faces: Rudd and Rockwell as brothers on opposite sides of control and chaos, and Affleck as a lawyer- investigator racing the clock on network television.
