We've already written a little bit about Win Win, the next project from The Visitor director Tom McCarthy, which will be about high school wrestlers in New Jersey, among other things. The indie project has yet to get going, but it's already received nearly the best blessing an independent film can get: a distribution deal with Fox Searchlight.
Vulture reports that the studio has picked up the project, which starts shootin gin April. Paul Giamatti will star, presumably as the head of the family at the center of the film. The plot description they supplied says the film will follow "a suburban New Jersey family and the teen runaway who changes their lives and turns around the sagging fortunes of a high school wrestling team." It sounds a little too treacly and a little too much like The Blind Side, but then again, the notion of a movie about a white college professor whose life is changed by a Muslim street musician was pretty awful too, but The Visitor was outstanding.
Searchlight will likely put a bigger spotlight on McCarthy's film than he's ever had before, but if there's anyone who can stand up to the pressure, it's got to be this guy. Can't wait to see what a studio guarantee allows him to do this time.
