Sideways novelist Rex Pickett has formed a joint venture with EFG-Renascence Productions to develop a stage musical based on the book adapted by Alexander Payne into the hit 2004 film. The project was announced today by EFG-Renascence founder Solomon J. LeFlore and partner Susan Gee. Pickett will write the musical in…

EXCLUSIVE: The hot project du jour: The Menu, a dark satirical comedy that Alexander Payne will direct. So far, Emma Stone and Ralph Fiennes have signed on to star, and it’s anticipated that other swell names will enlist. Scripted by Will Tracy & Seth Reiss, the pic focuses on an eccentric culinary event that is…

EXCLUSIVE: Months after becoming the Oscars’ oldest winner for adapting Call Me By Your Name, James Ivory has found a follow-up. He’ll adapt for director Alexander Payne and Fox Searchlight The Judge’s Will, based on an article in the New Yorker. It is a special assignment, given that the article was written by Ruth…

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios is in early talks with director Alexander Payne to come aboard and helm The Burial. Scripted by Doug Wright, the drama is based on the true legal exploits of Willie Gary, a successful personal-injury lawyer from Mississippi. He takes on the case of Jeremiah O’Keefe, the owner of a local chain…

There is no smarter director of wry and human comedy than Alexander Payne, whose filmography includes gems like Election, Nebraska,  About Schmidt and Oscar-winning scripts like Sideways and The Descendants. As I say in my video review above, his latest, Downsizing, fits right in but also might be his most ambitious…

When visual effects supervisor James E. Price met with Alexander Payne regarding Downsizing—his first film in which visual effects play a major role—Price expressed his desire to work on the film, calling it a dream job. “Why?” Payne inquired. “It doesn’t have a lot of the traditional things maybe associated with…

Showtime has put in development Kilroy County, a drama from producing partners Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor and Jim Burke, The Brink co-creator Roberto Benabib, director Miguel Arteta (Getting On), Scripted World, IM Global and Endemol Shine North America. Written by Taylor and Weeds alum Benabib and to be directed by…

The challenge for Alexander Payne's Downsizing is obvious: Its people are small, but its themes are very big. And whether those are too large, and manifold, for a pop culture that likes to gnaw on its issues in digestible lumps—racial injustice, political hatred, income inequality, climate collapse, each in its…

While Downsizing‘s protagonist, Paul (Matt Damon), is shrunk down to five centimeters in height in the pursuit of a better life, Italian production designer Stefania Cella found herself creatively stretched on her first Alexander Payne-directed project. Employing forced perspective tricks and a complex interplay of…

“In Leisureland, your $100,000 translates to $12 million.” Sounds great, but there’s gotta be a catch, right? Well yes, a little one: You must be shrunk to five inches tall. Welcome to the wee, wacky world of Downsizing, Alexander Payne’s pic that opened the Venice Film Festival two months ago. It stars Matt Damon who…

Alexander Payne had the distinction of opening this year's Venice Film Festival with his new film Downsizing, which followed last year's La La Land in a first-night slot that is often seen as a launching pad for awards season titles. Starring Matt Damon, the film takes place in a world where Norwegian scientists have…

Alexander Payne’s satire Downsizing drew plaudits when it opened the Venice Film Festival two weeks ago, and today Paramount has dropped the first full trailer. The film takes the premise of how much better our lives could be if we were to miniaturize (think dollhouse mansions, conflict-free diamonds for a couple of…