Though they got their start together in 1996’s “Bottle Rocket,” Wes Anderson’s directorial debut, it’s been a over a decade since acting brothers Luke and Owen Wilson worked together on a film. Their last effort together being 2005’s ill-fated “The Wendell Baker Story,” which Luke also wrote and co-directed with their brother, Andrew.
Since then, the Wilsons have taken two decidedly different career paths, with Owen staying predominantly on the big screen, with turns — both successful and not — in movies like “Wedding Crashers,” “You Me and Dupree,” “The Darjeeling Limited,” “Drillbit Taylor,” “Marmaduke,” “Hall Pass,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Marley and Me,” “The Internship,” “Inherent Vice” and the “Night at the Museum” films just to name a few. And Luke, while not without some feature film roles in “Death at a Funeral,” “Henry Poole Is Here,” “The Skeleton Twins,” “Concussion” and “The Ridiculous Six,” mostly keeping himself present on the small screen — namely with a stellar supporting turn in HBO’s overlooked “Enlightened” and with a soon-to-be-seen lead role in Cameron Crowe’s first TV outing, Showtime’s “Roadies.” But fear not: the Wilson brothers will soon be seen together again, and we have Larry Charles (“Borat,” “Bruno,” “The Dictator”) to thank for it.
READ MORE: Watch: First Trailer For Cameron Crowe’s Showtime Series ‘Roadies’ With Luke Wilson
Luke and Owen will star in an untilted broad prison comedy alongside Martin Lawrence in a supporting turn. Luke is set to star as Howie Summers, a man falsely accused of bank robbery who, thanks to his incompetent lawyer played by Owen, finds himself serving a life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit. Through some advice from his cellmate, Slick (Lawrence), Howie then finds himself with a wife on the outside in a fleet moment of spontaneity. But when he finds himself exonerated, he realizes he’s now married to a woman he hardly knows.
Sounds a little bit like a mix between Bob Odenkirk’s “Let’s Go To Prison” and the Lawrence/Eddie Murphy-starring comedy “Life” to me, but the extra love interest angle should help shake things up. If just a little bit. And with Charles involved, expect something a little more crude and timely than your average broad comedy. Although Charles is best known for his TV work and Sacha Baron Cohen comedies, he also has the Nicolas Cage-starring true story “Army of One” in the can and set to come out sometime this year. Perhaps starting on the festival circuit in the fall. In the meantime, he’ll start production on this prison comedy beginning July 11. Luke, in addition to starring in the new film, co-wrote it alongside Buck Ritchey, marking the first film he helped pen since the aforementioned “The Wendell Baker Story.” Funny how things come around full circle, huh? [THR]