This past March, Adam McKay was pitching an allegorical dramedy to studios. The film, titled “Average Height, Average Build”, was said to be about a serial killer who gets into politics to change the laws to be more friendly to murderers.
McKay wanted Robert Pattinson and Robert Downey, Jr. to star. The budget was said to be very high for the political satire, which had some studios balking at the idea of getting behind it.
This afternoon, it’s being reported that Netflix have bought the rights to the film. They were also behind McKay’s very popular “Don’t Look Up” in 2021.
Just like in “Don’t Look Up,” the cast will be stacked for “Average Height, Average Build”: Pattinson, Downey Jr, Amy Adams, Forrest Whitaker, Danielle Deadwyler … The film is set to start production in Boston this summer.
Despite his last three films having been showered with Oscar love (“The Big Short,” “Vice” and “Don’t Look Up”) this latest McKay still constitutes a risk for any studio to embark on. It doesn’t sound audience-friendly, which is why we’re intrigued by it.
“Don’t Look Up”, which had Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence trying to stop an asteroid, was, at the time, Netflix’s second most-watched movie of all time, with 360 million hours viewed.
McKay was one of the originators of the frat comedy movement in the early aughts with “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights,” “Step Brothers,” and “The Other Guys,” before deciding to go to a more serious route with his last three features.