After leading dark comedy “A Different Man” and Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice,” Sebastian Stan is slated for iconic filmmaker Elaine May‘s fifth and final feature, “Crackpot.” However, production is still waiting on a shadow director for the 92-year-old May.
Stan said during “The Big Picture” podcast that he is on board the project, which was first announced in 2019. Dakota Johnson is set to co-lead alongside Stan, but Stan said he still doesn’t know the status of the film — and he’s casting his net in hopes of helping May find a shadow director to insure the movie. It’s a common set practice with older filmmakers.
“I have this thing, I don’t know if it’ll ever get going,” Stan said. “I have this thing that Elaine May was going to direct. It was going to be her last film and her first film since ‘Ishtar.’ It’s this crazy, kooky comedy. It’s supposed to be with Dakota Johnson and myself … ‘The Birdcage’ [written by May] is one of my favorite fucking movies of all time, and that’s totally a comedy in the [same vein] of ‘When Harry Met Sally’… and all that great stuff. So I’m all over it. It’s just, weirdly, some things come together and other things you wait for.”
Stan added, “We’ve been trying to find a shadow director for Elaine May for the insurance company. So if anybody out there is hearing this and you want to fucking shadow Elaine May for her last film, let’s go do it!”
Guillermo del Toro most recently shadowed now-late filmmaker William Friedkin for his final feature, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” as an insurance director. Paul Thomas Anderson also famously shadowed Robert Altman for his last film, “A Prairie Home Companion.”
May, one half of famed comedy duo Nichols and May with late partner Mike Nichols, has directed four narrative films so far. She made her directorial debut in 1971 with “A New Leaf,” and later helmed “The Heartbreak Kid” in 1972, “Mikey and Nicky” in 1976, and “Ishtar” in 1987. She also directed the TV documentary “Mike Nichols: American Masters.”
“Crackpot” actress Johnson said in 2023 that she is also producing the feature.
“We are trying to get that done. It’s so hard to get any movies made ever, at all, but I’m producing it, and Elaine will direct it, and I’ll star in it,” Johnson said at the time, “and we’re working on casting.”
IndieWire has reached out to May’s representatives for comment. Details on the film’s plot are unknown so far.
