It’s been over five years since David Gordon Green’s Pineapple Express smoked out theaters, and it’s high time another decent stoner action comedy made its way in front of our squinty peepers. Luckily, Lionsgate’s American Ultra will be kicking its production into action soon, and stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart won’t have to feel so alone as the only cast members. Uma Thurman has entered negotiations to take one of the sub-leads of the film, making this her first starring role in a feature since 2012’s Playing for Keeps. Did you also forget that movie existed?
American Ultra is the second film from British commercial and music video director Nima Nourizadeh, whose first film was the underwhelming youth culture comedy Project X. The screenplay was written by Chronicle writer Max Landis, who also has the umpteenth Frankenstein adaptation and the comedy Me Him Her coming out in the next year or so. It’s an interesting combination, as both of their first features gave the found-footage genre the rare non-horror treatment.
In this energetic black comedy, Eisenberg will play a lazy pothead named Mike who lives in an unassuming town with his girlfriend (Stewart). Mike was apparently involved in a secret government program that put a sleeper militia out into the population, and one crazy night, his past returns in the form of a government operation to end his life. Something that I’m sure won’t add to his paranoia. THR says Thurman will play one of the government suits who created the sleeper program, and she’s not willing to sit back and watch her employers take down one of her greats accomplishments.
While Eisenberg and Stewart may leave a bad taste in some people’s mouths, I thought they were perfectly fine together in Greg Mattola’s Adventureland. Still, Thurman’s presence is welcome, and I can’t wait to see who else Nourizadeh finds to play the actual bad guys.
The reason we haven’t seen the beautiful blonde in a while is because she’s been busy raising her daughter Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson with French financier Arpad Busson. She’ll next be seen completely clothed later this month in Lars Van Trier’s nudity-filled Nymphomaniac, and possibly still has the Anita Bryant biopic in the pipeline, but I’m not sure. You can see her below talking to Jonathan Ross a few weeks ago about her upcoming role and her legacy as Quentin Tarentino’s character queen.
With a production company fleet of Likely Story, Circle of Confusion, and PalmStar Entertainment, American Ultra is looking to being filming on April 14. You’d think they could just wait six days for 4/20, but I guess that’s going too far.
