We’ve become used, from four wild years of Trump, to headlines that seem to be have been composed via a game of Mad Libs. But sometimes the random-sounding news is more lighthearted, even harmless. An example: Elizabeth Banks directing a movie called Cocaine Bear. So here’s another: As per Deadline, Seth Rogen is going to play Steven Spielberg’s uncle. Why not! Sounds like a completely out-of-nowhere piece of news that will probably be pretty delightful!
The legendary director — which is to say Spielberg, not Rogen, who’s a pretty good filmmaker, too, for the record — is setting up his next movie, and it’s going to be more personal than ever. It will be a loose chronicle of his childhood in Arizona, which will find him getting a screenplay credit for the first time A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. (He’ll share writing duties with his longtime collaborator, Tony-winning playwright Tony Kushner, who’s written Munich, Lincoln, and his forthcoming take on West Side Story.)
Spielberg already cast Michelle Williams as a character who’s not quite his real-life mom. Rogen, meanwhile, will play the director’s favorite uncle. It technically won’t be the first time the two have worked together: Spielberg had a voice cameo in the 2011 alien comedy Paul, featuring Rogen as the titular E.T. But considering how good Rogen is when he goes serious (Steve Jobs, Take This Waltz, which also starred Williams), this should be a welcome. Unless he wants him to bring his aw-shucks, giggly Rogen-ness to bear, which would be cool, too.
(Via Deadline)