When Jonah Hill came on the scene, popping up in David O. Russell‘s “I Heart Huckabees” and Judd Apatow‘s “The 40 Year Old Virgin,” no one thought much of the young comic except that he was already stealing scenes from vets with a few more years of experience. But for anyone who has been paying attention to him behind the scenes, it’s been pretty apparent his ambitions were big. He’s taken to the pen, with films like “The Adventurer’s Handbook” and the animated “Sausage Party” in the works, and he’s even developing television programs, recently selling a project to Fox. So no surprise that the young talent has plotted a major next move.
Deadline reports that Hill is set to make his directorial debut with “The Kitchen Sink” and it’s some ambitious fare. The Black List approved script by Oren Uziel (who, worryingly, is tasked with rebooting “Mortal Kombat“) follows “the unlikely alliance between a high school-aged vampire, zombie and human as they try to save their town from invading aliens.”
The title of the script is no coincidence, as its pretty clear that writer is tossing in every hot genre of the moment into the pot — we just hope it makes a meal that isn’t a mess. But as far as first films go, Hill certainly set a very high bar for himself, but with the experience he’s already accrued working with seasoned directors like Russell, Apatow, Bennett Miller (on the forthcoming “Moneyball“), David Gordon Green (on the forthcoming “The Sitter“) and Greg Mottola (“Superbad“) he should picked up enough pointers to make a confident debut behind the camera. While Deadline calls the film a drama, comparisons have also been drawn to “The Breakfast Club” which makes a bit more sense but clearly this is pretty intriguing concept.
The project is set up at Sony with Matt Tolmach producing and Hill has became a favorite on the lot. Aside from “Moneyball,” he’s shooting “21 Jump Street” this spring for the studio. No word yet on when this might go in front of cameras, but nothing will likely happen until Hill wraps up his duties with ‘Jump Street.’ We’re always pretty excited when young talent take big swings into new arenas with their career, and we’re eager to see how Hill will fare as a director.
