Larry Charles doesn't direct a lot of movies, but when he does his star of choice is quite obvious. Though he has had a long career in television, working as a writer on shows like Seinfeld, Mad About You and The Arsenio Hall Show, since he made his way onto the big screen he has directed four features and three of them have starred Sacha Baron Cohen (the exception being 2003's Masked and Anonymous, which, strangely enough, starred Bob Dylan). From 2006 to 2012 Charles directed Cohen in character-based comedies Borat, Bruno and The Dictator, but for his next project he's found a new star.
Variety has learned that Russell Brand has been cast as the lead in Larry Charles' Pierre Pierre. The script was writteh by Edwin Cannistraci and Frederick Seton and was featured on the annual Black List (a list of the most popular unproduced scripts written during a year). Brand will play a French nihilist in the movie who “transports a stolen painting from Paris to London.” Over the course of his journey he runs into a serial killer (named Pigeonshit), a French police inspector, and his own mother (who owns a brothel). There was talk at one time that Jason Reitman would direct the movie with Jim Carrey starring, but the project went into turnaround and only recently resurfaced.
In addition to heading to television with his FX series Brand X with Russell Brand, the actor has kept busy on the big screen, starring alongside Julianne Hough in Diablo Cody’s directorial debut. He also has a role in the upcoming Despicable Me 2 and is attached to the fantasy comedy The Hauntrepreneur.
