Roger Ebert once said that no movie with Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad. I've applied the same rule to Richard Jenkins and Paul Giamatti, the latter a character actor who makes everything around him feel more real.
With that in mind, Takashi Yamazaki isn't wasting any time. "Godzilla Minus Zero" hasn't even opened yet (it arrives November 6), and he's already readying his next move: his first major studio picture, "Grandgear."
Per Deadline, Sam Nivola and Nico Parker have landed the two leads, and none other than Giamatti is in talks to join them. Yamazaki wrote the original script and will direct, with J.J. Abrams producing. Plot details are being kept under wraps, and cameras are expected to roll sometime in 2027.
The leads reportedly came out of an extensive search that ended in chemistry reads, where Nivola and Parker beat out the competition. They're good choices, both of them. Nivola was one of the subtle standouts of "The White Lotus," and Parker has been quietly rising, with a wonderful turn in the Sundance hit "Suncoast," a BAFTA nomination for "The Last of Us," and the female lead in the live-action "How to Train Your Dragon."
Yamazaki did the impossible with "Godzilla Minus One," a modest-budget Toho production that looked better than most $200M Hollywood tentpoles and won him the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, making him the first director to win that award since Stanley Kubrick. Hollywood was always going to come calling. The question is whether a Bad Robot-backed studio project will bury his talents. The fact that he's working from his own original script, rather than some recycled IP, is encouraging.
"Minus Zero" premiered at the New York Film Festival in September to a strong reception. It's currently tracking for a $25M–30M opening, and if it lands with audiences the way "Minus One" did, Yamazaki will walk into "Grandgear" with about as much leverage as any filmmaker can hope for.
As for Giamatti, the no-bad-movie rule has its exceptions, but they're few and far between. He was, after all, in "Lady in the Water" and "Paycheck." He's coming off festival screenings of A24's "The Debut," a performance that once again puts him in contention for his first Oscar, despite plenty of earlier awards-worthy work in "Sideways," "American Splendor," "Cinderella Man" and "The Holdovers."
Takashi Yamazaki isn't wasting any time. "Godzilla Minus Zero" hasn't even opened yet (it arrives November 6), and he's already readying his next move: his first major studio picture, "Grandgear."