Ben Stiller recently confirmed he won’t be helming the upcoming third season of “Severance,” freeing him for something bigger: a return to features. He’s now prepping an untitled WWII “survival” film, eyeing a spring 2026 shoot. Though Stiller hasn’t publicly revealed details, I recently reported the project was “The Lost Airman.”
Originally announced in 2018 as a Jake Gyllenhaal-led vehicle (without Stiller attached), the film is based on Seth Meyerowitz’s book, which sources tell me Stiller reportedly became interested in after being sent a copy by “Severance” producer John Lesher.
It’s just been announced that Jeremy Allen White will be taking on the role Gyllenhaal initially eyed. A24 is backing the project, Amazon/MGM seems to have left the project. It’s now simply titled “Airman” (via THR).
The story, drawn from Obama-era declassified records, recounts the harrowing ordeal of Arthur Meyerowitz, an American turret gunner whose B-24 was shot down over Vichy France in 1943. While hiding in the French countryside, Meyerowitz was sheltered by Marcel Talliander, the founder of the famed Morhange resistance group, and spent six months narrowly evading the Gestapo. His eventual escape relied on a complex plan involving R.F.W. Cleaver, one of the war’s most decorated British pilots.
White is clearly paving a post-‘Bear’ path for a movie career. He’s going to be seen in the Bruce Springsteen biopic ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ this fall, recently shot A24’s spy action flick “Enemies,” and is set to star in Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Network Part II.”
For all the jokes about “Zoolander 2,” Stiller’s résumé as a filmmaker is respectable: “Reality Bites,” “The Cable Guy,” “Zoolander,” “Tropic Thunder,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” A WWII survival thriller would mark a new turn.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.