I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but Renee Zellweger stopped acting. She churned out roles on the regular for almost two decades and then abruptly stopped. She hasn’t made a picture since 2010’s forgettable My Own Love Song, but that now seems poised to change thanks to her interest in a new project.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Zellweger is in advanced negotiations to join the indie drama The Whole Truth. The work will be directed by Courtney Hunt. The screenplay will be written by Nicholas Kazan, and apart from Zellweger, if she officially boards, it will star Daniel Craig. As of now, the plot isn’t being discussed publically, but it’s generally being described as a courtroom drama, with the James Bond actor allegedly playing the district attorney.
During the mid-to-late 90s and early 2000s, Zellweger was among the biggest female stars in Hollywood. She churned out films like Jerry Maguire, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Chicago and Cold Mountain, the latest of which she won an Academy Award for. Unfortunately, a bad choice here or there snowballed into a cold streak of films that didn’t get wide releases or heavy marketing. Sometimes under those circumstances, the most logical play for an actor trying to break out of the rut really is to take some time off. After all, who isn’t ready to give the actress another shot at this point?
Courtroom dramas don’t often have the highest ceilings when it comes to box office revenues, but a well-executed legal drama can still turn a tidy little profit. Perhaps more importantly, it can also provide a few hours of riveting drama that’s every bit as worth investing in as a wonderful who-done-it.
So far, details such as when this will begin shooting or when any of us might actually get to see it haven’t been released yet, but if I were a betting man, I would say a few months from now for shooting and early in 2015 for a release date, unless it has Oscar aspirations. We’ll keep you updated on that front, however.
Until then, if you want to remember how utterly brilliant Zellweger is capable of being, take a trip down memory lane by watching the trailer for Chicago that I’ve gone ahead and embedded below…
