Warren Beatty is a legend…but he’s also one of Hollywood’s legendary ditherers. He amasses directing projects, but he never really gets around to making them.
But now, all of a sudden, Beatty is directing again. On Monday, Deadline reported he struck a pact with Paramount to direct and star in an untitled comedy. But today, that comedy seems to have shifted into a Howard Hughes biopic.
Apparently, it’s not a traditional biopic. Deadline says part of the plot “involves an affair he had with a young woman in the later years of his life.”
Beatty will play Hughes, and has reportedly met with Andrew Garfield, Alec Baldwin, Annette Bening, Shia La Beouf, Jack Nicholson, Evan Rachel Wood and Rooney Mara to fill out his ensemble cast. No one else has signed yet. Call me crazy, point to my real insider knowledge, but I imagine the first one he’ll sign is Bening.
We’ll see how this one comes together. It’s apparently been a cherished dream of Beatty to play Hughes, but he could also let this one fall apart out of sheer perfectionism.
But here’s one thing we know — somewhere on The Dark Knight Rises set, Christopher Nolan weeps.