Breakout movie roles don’t come as memorable — or repulsive — as Aaron Eckhart‘s slimy performance as Chad in Neil LaBute‘s “In The Company Of Men.” It was a wickedly dark turn in a movie that itself was blackly hilarious that lead to two more collaborations between the writer/director: the excellent “Your Friends & Neighbors” and the far less successful “Possession.” And then the two parted ways. Eckhart went on to become one of the top leading men and character actors in Hollywood, while LaBute fell into a bit of spiral directing a string of bad movies including, at the bottom of the barrel, “The Wicker Man” and “Lakeview Terrace.” But almost a decade since they last worked together, it looks like the duo are ready to pick up again.
24 Frames reports that LaBute and Eckhart will reunite on “The Hope Of Geography” with Ed Harris also slated to star. Based on a script LaBute wrote before he broke into the theater or film world, the 1970s-set story follows two crooks (Eckhart and Harris) who flee to Baja, Mexico, after a robbery in a San Diego convenience store goes bad. There they encounter several American women, and they find themselves torn between the impulse to grift the ladies and romance them. The film is said to fall into similar thematic territory as “In The Company Of Men.”
The plan is to shoot this year in Puerto Rico where a location has apparently already been found. But no word yet on how this might affect “Crooked House,” the Agatha Christie adaptation penned by Julian Fellowes that LaBute signed on to direct, that was also gearing up to shoot this year as well. Guess we’ll see how it all plays, but for now, take a trip down memory lane with trailers for the three previous LaBute/Eckhart collabs.
