Well, you knew something had to break. After his Best Acting Oscar nomination for “The Hurt Locker,” Jeremy Renner‘s stock in the star market rose astronomically and he attached himself to several tentpoles (“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” being the biggest) and even flirted with the first iteration of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Scientology project. But something in his schedule had to give and that’s become an indie called “Better Living Through Chemistry.”
But the project isn’t operating at a loss and in fact, the torch been passed on to an equal and dear friend of his, Sam Rockwell (see Rockwell, Renner and the cast of “Daylight” here). Reps for Rockwell have confirmed to The Playlist that the actor is currently in negotiations to take over the lead role which will find him playing a small-town pharmacist stuck in a loveless marriage who rediscovers himself through an affair that eventually turns deadly.
Debut writer/directors Geoff Moore and David Posamentier are at the helm, and Occupant Films, the company behind the coming-of-age tale “The Wackness ,” are producing. Already attached to star are Jennifer Garner, Judi Dench and Michelle Monaghan.
As mentioned, the film centers on a straight-laced pharmacist (would be played by Rockwell) whose uneventful life spirals out of control when he starts an affair with a trophy wife customer (Jennifer Garner) who takes him on a joyride involving sex, drugs and a murder plot to kill her husband. “It’s a really great script. I play his wife, and she’s a really anal, uptight – it’s a character I’ve never really played before, but she’s in there, believe me,” Michelle Monaghan told us at SXSW earlier this year. “I’m gonna find her! It’s a great movie, I’m really excited about that one.”
Penned by Moore and Posamentier, the script charted high on the Black List last year. Rockwell has “Cowboys & Aliens” hitting later this month and plays a drug dealer in David Gordon Green‘s “The Sitter” which is currently slotted for a December 2011 release.