Glen Powell has been attached to star in Paramount’s reimagining of Heaven Can Wait. More on the project below.
Glen Powell truly is the man of the moment. He’s only just coming off the unexpected success of Sony’s Anyone But You and about to headline the summer’s windiest blockbuster Twisters, but he’s now eyeing up a body-switch comedy.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Powell will star in Paramount’s reimagining of Heaven Can Wait, based on Harry Segall’s play of the same name. The play was most famously adapted in 1978 and starred Warren Beatty as an NFL football player who suffers an unfortunate, untimely death but returns to Earth in the body of a recently murdered millionaire.
Warren Beatty also directed the film, which received nine Oscar nominations, winning Best Art Direction as it was called at the time. Segall’s play has also been adapted in 1941 into Here Comes Mr. Jordan, which focuses on a boxer and in 2001 into Down to Earth in which Chris Rock played a comedian who dies before his time.
The new film will be written by Stephen Gaghan, the award-winning writer behind films such as Traffic and Syriana, and it seems like he’s penning the script specifically to suit Powell.
The Hollywood Reporter also mentions that the film will be a reimagining rather than a direct remake of Beatty’s film and Powell won’t be playing a football player in this version.
Powell is currently in high demand in Hollywood. On top of starring in Twisters this summer, he’s also starring in Richard Linklater’s Hit Man which is about to hit cinemas and Netflix. Powell is also linked to JJ Abrams’ secret new film and the Top Gun: Maverick actor has also got A24’s Huntington and Edgar Wright’s Stephen King adaptation in the horizon.
More on Heaven Can Wait as we hear it.
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