It seems like when actors finish their Marvel Cinematic Universe run, they finally get back down to serious business. Robert Downey Jr. is poised to win a Best Supporting Oscar for “Oppenheimer,” and is seemingly heading onto a new chapter of his career; Chris Evans is working with Ethan Coen and ostensibly doing the same, and now the third in the holy MCU trinity, Scarlett Johansson is mounting her feature-length directorial debut titled, “Eleanor The Great.”
According to Variety, actors are assembling, and “Eleanor The Great” has a rather impressive cast, too. So far, cast in the film is June Squibb, the Oscar-nominated actor of “Nebraska,” Chiwetel Ejiofor, Broadway veteran Jessica Hecht, and Erin Kellyman, known for “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Solo: A Star War Story.” Johannson is not expecting to appear in front of the camera on this one.
Formerly titled “Eleanor The Invisible,” the film centers on a 90-year-old woman (Squibb) trying to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Tory Kamen (“The Vineyard”) wrote the screenplay, and TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics are partnering on the film, though a release date still seems to be TBD.
“Eleanor The Great” will be a reunion of sorts for Johansson and Hecht, as they appeared together in the Broadway play “A View From The Bridge.”
Material like this, centering on a nonagenarian, is obviously not the sexiest of subjects to most audiences but perhaps signals Johansson’s commitment to much more serious subjects and cinemagoing fare (Sony Pictures Classics definitely points to a film for an older-skewing audience). After her last MCU outing, 2021’s “Black Widow,” she’s appeared in a Wes Anderson film (“Asteroid City”) and the directorial debut of Kristin Scott Thomas (“North Star”), and one wonders if her watching an actor flourish in the director’s chair gave her the bug.
Up next for the actress in 2024 is a voice role in the animated “Transformers One” and the romantic comedy “Project Artemis,” alongside Channing Tatum. She is also poised to shoot “Featherwood,” a true-crime drama about neo-Nazis, for acclaimed U.K. director Andrea Arnold.
