Jason Reitman, director of "Up in the Air" and last year's unfairly overlooked "Young Adult," is doing another one of his "Live Readings" of a famous movie script, and this time it's the Oscar-winning "American Beauty" at the Toronto International Film Festival. Courtesy of his Twitter, he's been slowly revealing the cast members for the new reading. In addition to the already announced Adam Driver (from "Girls"), who will play the Wes Bentley role, and Sarah Gadon ("Cosmopolis"), who will play the Mena Suvari role, Reitman has revealed who will be taking on the Thora Birch, Scott Bakula, and Peter Gallagher parts.
Comedian Nick Kroll, who has appeared on "Community," "The League," and "Children's Hospital" and is generally just a very funny dude, will be playing Buddy, a role originated by Gallagher. (We wonder if Kroll will add some eyebrow augmentation to get really into the character.) Additionally, Mae Whitman, from "Arrested Development" and "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (her first movie performance was as Bill Pullman's daughter in "Independence Day" – thanks Google!), will be taking over the iconic role of Jane, made famous by Thora Birch. And last but not least, George Stroumboulopoulos will play Jim, a role originated by Scott Bakula. To which we say – wait, Scott Bakula was in "American Beauty?" Man, we really don't remember this movie. Stroumboulopoulos, for those of you who don't know, is a well-known Canadian radio and TV personality — keeping it Canadian for Toronto, we like your style, Reitman!
Reitman has done a number of these live reads, mostly at LA's LACMA, and previous films have included "The Princess Bride," "Shampoo," "The Apartment," and "Reservoir Dogs." This is probably the biggest and most public reading Reitman has done and it should be fun to see play out in front of an adoring TIFF audience. What will be a real coup is if he can get someone from "American Beauty" to play a different role, like when he had Carey Elwes from "Princess Bride" play the villain in the live reading. We think Kevin Spacey could make for a pretty nifty Chris Cooper! We'll find out soon — the reading takes place tomorrow night.
