Back in late March of 2018, Cameron Diaz, star of movies like The Mask, There’s Something About Mary and Shrek, confirmed that she had indeed retired from acting. However, there have been plenty of instances over the years where actors who’ve said they retired from that line of work decide to jump back into performing, and now we can count Diaz coming that group. She’s coming back for a new movie, and it’ll re-team her with a former co-star: Jamie Foxx.
Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx previously worked together on 2014’s Annie, a contemporary adaptation of the same-named Broadway musical. Until today, Annie held the title of Diaz’s last movie, but no more, as Diaz and Foxx will act alongside each other in an upcoming Netflix movie fittingly titled Back in Action. Foxx broke the news on his social media pages, sharing the audio portion of a conversation he had with Diaz, which also included a certain athlete who knows what it’s like to walk back on retirement.
Yep, if you’re looking for some advice on how to properly un-retire, Tom Brady’s your man considering that’s he’s stepped away and returned to football on more than one occasion. More importantly, we can now look forward to Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx reuniting for a movie that’ll be available to Netflix subscribers. This news comes almost a decade after these two worked together on Annie, where the former played the Miss Hannigan to the latter’s Will Stacks. Annie was met with primarily negative critical reception, so here’s hoping Back in Action fares better with the public.
So what do we know about Back in Action aside from its two leading stars? For now, plot details are being kept secret, but Netflix did reveal that Horrible Bosses’ Seth Gordon is directing the feature, as well as co-wrote the script with Neighbors’ Brendan O’Brien and will produce through Exhibit A production banner alongside Beau Bauman from Good One Productions. Jamie Foxx is also executive producing with O’Brien, Datari Turner and Mark McNair. While Back in Action will mark Diaz’s Netflix debut, it’s Foxx’s latest project for the streaming service, having previously starred in Project Power and Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!, and also having They Cloned Tyrone coming up.
In the years since she finished filming Annie, Cameron Diaz kept busy writing several books, crushing it with her wine company and even getting in on TikTok, among others things. In 2021, Diaz said she had no idea if she’d ever star in a movie again, and a little over a month later, she acknowledged that she didn’t have what it took anymore to “give making a movie what it needs to be made.” It’ll be interesting to hear how she was convinced to come aboard Back in Action with Jamie Foxx, whether that story is shared during the movie’s press circuit or earlier.
CinemaBlend will pass along more news on Back to Action’s development at Netflix, including the other actors who will join Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx. Find out what movies are heading to the platform in the near future by scanning through our 2022 Netflix movie schedule.
