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Baz Luhrmann isn’t the only director meeting with top young actresses for a project. Much the way that Luhrmann has a top group of thesps he’ll read with to find Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, Crowe has a short list to play the female lead opposite Matt Damon in We Bought A Zoo, the Benjamin Mee memoir about an American who moves to England to operate a zoo. I’m hearing that the top contender is Scarlett Johansson, but that Amy Adams, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Rachel McAdams are also in the mix. Crowe and Aline Brosh McKenna wrote the script.
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Nothing against Johansson, but McAdams is a way better actress.
McAdams has to get this.
i would’nt say that
scarlett just chooses to do more main stream block busters while Rachael does her little indie films
scarlett is very talented
Rachel does little indie films? What are you talking about? lmao
like Scarlett but go with Amy Adams
Dear God no! Not Ady Adams, anybody but her. Cannot stand her in any film (apart from Enchanted).
Wow, why aren’t we reading a list of female actors who are, you know, Damon’s CONTEMPORARIES??
The man’s 40 years and we’re looking at a list of actresses that include someone who just played a high schooler. I know age-inappropriate casting is standard operating procedure in Hollywood, but…stuff like this still has just has an ick factor about it.
Maybe I just expect more from Damon — I desperately don’t want to see him turn into the next Nicholson or Woody Allen as far as on-screen pairings go.
Damon just turned 40, and he doesn’t look 40. He can play mid to late 30′s which both McAdams and Adams are, so I don’t see the problem with these two.
Of the group, only Amy Adams is his “contemporary” at 36. McAdams is 31, Scar-Jo and Winstead are 26…
McAdams is 34.
McAdams is 31.
Google is your friend.
Completely agree! McAdams and Adams are at least in their 30′s, but the other girls are way too young, not to mention completely uninspired. Diane Kruger, Evangeline Lily or Zooey Deschanel (who has worked with Crowe) seem like more interesting ideas.
Amy McAdams is in her late 30′s. Rachel McAdams is only 8 years younger than Damon. I don’t get much ick factor from that.
Yeah, ick factor is more with ScarJo and with Winsted, who just played Michael Cera’s love interest for crying out loud.
Adams is fine, McAdams is “only” ten years younger, maybe not icky but definitely symptomatic of Hollywood casting tendencies (the men turn 40, but their onscreen lovers miraculously stay between 25 and 30, and 40-year old actresses are stuck looking for mom roles on “Lifetime”).
The movie isn’t about an American moving to England to buy a Zoo. Mee IS English and the book, his memoir, is set in England, but they are Americanizing it and setting the film in the US.
That being said McAdams or Adams are my choices.
It seems like both Luhrmann and Crowe are still deciding what kind of movie they want to make, given the wildly different qualities the various actresses the two directors are considering would bring to the respective roles they’re casting.
Cast none other than animal activist Betty White. She and Damon have a sizzling cross-generational chemistry. Oscars all around.
Would real director actually choose Scarlet J over Amy Adams or Rachel Mcadams???? How embarrassing!!! Amy is a brilliant actress and Rachel is very good….Scarlett is just pretty-thats all
Team Winstead all the way!
No on Winstead. She’s too young to play opposite Damon. I mean, she just played Michael Cera’s love interest! Go with Rachel McAdams all the way.
Whenever I see the title WE BOUGHT A ZOO I’m reminded of the “big dumb summer comedy” that Albert Brooks’ is trying to write in THE MUSE. They should recast Matt Damon with Jim Carrey.
The part seems totally written for Amy Adams. But if not her, then I’d say Rachel McAdams or Elizabeth Banks – they’re fairly interchangeable and both good. Not Scarlett. And Mary Elizabeth who?
Correction:
What does Hollyweird see in Scarlett Johansson ? This woman can’t act to save her life . And now, Elizabeth Winstead deserves to be in the same company with Rachel McAdams and Amy Adams. These things just boggle my mind.
McAdams and Adams are easily the superior actresses in that they are quite unlikely to turn in an average or mediocre performance. Scar-Jo can be good in the right situation but she is really hit or miss. As for Winstead, she really looks too young for this role.
Winstead is actually talented but people are dismissing her because of her age? That’s just stupid. She needs/deserves this film more than the others who are already overexposed.
Judi Dench and Dakota Fanning are also talented, but it’s not stupid to consider them inappropriate choices for this role either. Winstead can find other roles.
Mr. Crowe, just because you are suddenly single, don’t think that you’re gonna get actress/marriage deals offered to you like Tom Cruise did. While Tom Cruise was once able to open a movie, you never were…even though you are pretty talented. Bring on Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything 2! I bet Red Rain can be licensed again!
I’m not 100% sure the character the actresses might play will be Damon’s love interest. Damon’s character wife dies at the beginning of the movie (not a spoiler since that is the reason they buy the zoo and in every summary of the movie) and Mee’s story isnt about finding love, but keeping his family together.
Scarlett a bad actress? Please. She’s amazing and has far more awards and award worthy work under her belt than any of the other actresses mentioned.
Must suck to be
Paltrow, Aniston, Theron, etc
all of whom could clearly use a role in a Cameron Crowe movie but are “too old” judging by this short list. Even Anne Hathaway seems a bit “old” for this list, which reads like a mid life crisis wet dream.
What filmmaker in his right mind would choose Scar-Jo over Amy Adams or Rachel McAdams? Nothing against Johansson but she is nowhere near the actress the other two are.
How anyone could ever pick Scarlett over Rachel is mind blowing to me.
Please not Scarlett. She was great in Lost in Translation, but since then her acting has gotten a lot worse. She was terrible in Iron Man 2 and I just don’t get the appeal anymore. All of the others on this list are some of my favorite Hollywood actresses right now, any would be better. Amy Adams might be best in terms of the age gap.
Hollywood Rules Refresher:
1- Putting 18-34 yr old asses into the seats is Rule #1
2- 18-34′s want to watch other 18-34′s curse, fuck, shoot, party
3- 18-34 males want violence, sex, gross “humor”-in that order
4- 18-34 females want seduction, kissing, revenge-in that order
5- Movies with costumes, accents, non-USA settings = Period Pieces.
18-34′s loathe PP’s and European settings. An American who moves
to England to open a zoo = B.O death unless…
6- Though 18-34′s despise English romances, they’ll pay to see other
18-34′s in England doing the things in Rules # 3 & 4-killing,
fucking, seducing, fleeing authorities, massive explosions,
stealing, revenging, and toilet “humor”.
7- 34 is the Expiration Date for Hollywood actress careers as
romantic leads (for men, it’s twice that).
Fact: 18-34′s won’t pay to see 35+ women act sexy. Never have,
never will.
8- 18-34′s WILL pay to see M Damon romance an 18-34 yr old girl-the
younger the better. But hook him up with a 34+ looking actress,
and collectively the 18-34′s will say “Fuck you!” to the movie.
9- Studios have 2 choices: Going for an Academy Award or putting
18-34 asses in the seats. The former gets you prestige, the
latter makes you rich. Producers/directors who hire age
appropriate actors and prefer story nuance over raw/and or kinky
sex & violence never make money.
10- “Zoo”, with a set location in boring England = No 18-34 asses in
the seats. You can take that to the bank.
Does the Studio, Crowe, Damon et al want money or Awards? Choose
one, you can’t have both.
18-34′s WILL pay to see “Zoo” if and only if M Damon gets to fuck
the youngest actress on the short list.
18-34 males will pay to watch an older guy romancing a younger
girl, even if there’s no violence/explosions in “Zoo”.
18-34 females will pay to watch their fantasies about older
guy/younger woman romances on the big screen.
Girls will view “Zoo” as a chic film, and boys will see it as an
older dude scoring with a young chic. Truly a B.O win-win!
11- Rule #1-Putting 18-34 yr old asses into the seats- isn’t fair,
equitable, nonsexist, uplifting, honorable, or rocket science.
But it IS the #1 Rule that makes or breaks a Hollywood studio.
If Zoo’s choice of female lead follows the Rules- as young as
possible, say 23ish- and the flick adds some gratuitous violence,
18-34′s may fill up the seats and make it a B.O success.
If not, come next March, we may hear the words…”And the Academy
Award for Best Picture goes to ‘Zoo’ ” on the very same day that
its studio files for bankruptcy because the 18-34′s said “FU!” to
paying to watch an “old” guy fucking an “old” lady in a damn zoo
in merry “old” England.
There are too many things epically wrong and stupid-headed about the above post to even address, but I’ll just point out how fabulously wrong it in regards to the specifics of this role and this project:
This role is not someone “acting sexy,” have you read the script?!?!? It’s not like this actress is slinking around in a teddy doing pole-dances for two hours, for cripe’s sake.
May Winstead would be a stupendously bad choice for this part, and yes, it’s because of the age differential — put her next to Matt Damon and it looks and feels all kinds of wrong.
If he were Bond and this were a Bond movie and she were a Bond girl, fine, that’s a different story, at least SOME of the “rules” you were spouting off about might apply. But this is a Cameron Crowe rom-dram, and no, 18-year olds and pervy old men are not the target audience.
Wow, whoever that dude is who wrote that big list of “rules” def knows what he’s talking about.
I mean, Sandra Bullock was just the romantic lead in “The Proposal” as a 45 year old, doing a guy like fifteen years her junior for good measure, and what a disaster that movie was…I mean NO ONE went to see it. Obviously there were no “18-34 asses” in the seats for that one…
Oh right it did $163,000,000 domestic you STUPID SEXIST DOUCHE!
Drag your knuckles back into the cave you came from…
This guy is right about everything — I guess I’ll hold my nose and try to stomach the idea of a washed-up 35 year old Angeline Jolie just trying to “act sexy” in the upcoming “The Tourist.” I’m sure that will flop because no one wants to see an old bag like that with one of Hollywood’s leading men.
And since she’s 35, she’s past her expiration date so THANK GOD we won’t have to see her in any other movies in a leading role ever.
I would love to see Matt Damon and Rachel McAdams in a movie. I think they could have great chemistry. I just don’t see Scarlett having the potential for chemistry with Matt. Amy Adams would be good too.
scarjo leaves me cold. next.