One was the star of the recently cancelled sitcom “Ben and Kate,” while the other plays the sene-stealing Dean Pelton on “Community,” but together Jim Rash and Nat Faxon are the Academy Award-winning screenwriting duo behind “The Descendents.” The pair also recently hit Sundance to premiere their directorial debut (which they also wrote, exec-produced and starred in) “The Way, Way Back” (our review here) featuring Sam Rockwell, Toni Collette and Steve Carell, which was picked up by Fox Searchlight in one of the festival’s biggest acquistions. Unsurprisingly Fox Searchlight wants to stay in the Rash-Faxon business, and they’ve acquired an untitled pitch from the pair.
Rash and Faxon could go on to write and direct this latest project, which will apparently focus on a dysfunctional family. That’s all we know so far, except interestingly it appears that this news comes on the back of a first draft of the script being submitted to the studio, with Variety reporting that Searchlight had actually negotiated this deal with the writers some months ago. That would mean it happened before Sundance, so all the more credit to Rash and Faxon for still getting the big bucks from the studio for “The Way, Way Back.”
With “Ben and Kate” having recently ceased production and “Community” facing an uncertain future under new showrunners, it’s great that the pair are finding such filmmaking success – and success that doesn’t seem undeserved. Rash and Faxon are both hilarious in front of the camera, and when a debut script picks up a little golden man it’s hard to doubt their screenwriting prowess either. We’re looking forward to “The Way, Way Back” hitting theatres later this year. Until then, let’s hope Craig Pelton’s back with a vengeance when “Community” returns to NBC next week.
