One of our favorite romantic comedy scripts of recent years is “The F-Word,” by Elan Mastai. Following Wallace and Chantry, two twentysomethings who meet at a party, and hit it off, but Chantry has a long-term boyfriend, and so the pair decide to remain friends, but struggle with their mutual attraction. It’s a familiar premise, but extremely well executed, with well-drawn, likable characters, and dotted with some ingenious animated sequences. Essentially, it’s like “500 Days Of Summer,” but without the female lead being a paper-thin cypher.
It made the Black List in 2008, and Fox Searchlight finally began moving forward on it in recent months; “In Search Of A Midnight Kiss” director Alex Holdridge was appointed a few months ago, and Casey Affleck landed the role of Wallace at the end of June. Now, according to the latest issue of Production Weekly (as usual, not online except for subscribers, but p. 7 if you do have access), four actresses are in the running to join him, and they’re some very high-calibre names.
The publication suggests that testing is underway for the role of Chantry, and that Rose Byrne, Rebecca Hall, Deborah Ann Woll and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are all likely to go before cameras to land the role; basically every young actress who’s too tall to play Lisbeth Salander… Coincidentally, all four are totally our girlfriends. Production Weekly isn’t always 100% accurate, but this seems like solid info to us.
If nothing else, it suggests that Holdridge has a very keen eye for casting. Byrne’s a fine actress, who hasn’t had the best roles of late, but showed a new talent for comedy by being one of the best things in “Get Him To The Greek,” and looks to continue this with next year’s Judd Apatow produced “Bridesmaids.” Hall is obviously terrific, and this might fill the rom-com hole she missed out on after Richard Linklater’s “Liars A-E” was sadly scrapped, while Woll, a star of “True Blood” has been linked with a role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, and Winstead is likely to be in demand after “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.”
Despite not being the biggest fans of “In Search Of A Midnight Kiss,” we’re pretty excited about this one, assuming any of the four actresses end up signing on. The big question here is Affleck; we’re obviously huge fans, but he’s somewhat untested as a romantic lead, and that was even before certain allegations made recently which may make it difficult for audiences to identify with him. But innocent before proven guilty and all, he’s a fine actor, and should be a great piece of a promising package.