Not since his days as a short filmmaker has David MacKenzie touched comedy – and in a wildly different move, Variety reports that the Scottish filmmaker is making a departure into the laugher mode signing up to direct the pairing of Jennifer Jason Leigh and Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher will produce with his banner. Katalyst’s Jason Goldberg and Peter Morgan are producing. Barbarian
Films’ Aaron Kaufman exec produces.
Spread is scripted by Jason Dean Hall, and chronicles the adventures
of a serial womanizer (Kutcher); Leigh will play a thwarted lover. Shooting begins later this month in Los Angeles.
MacKenzie who has dug into the more dramatic layers of human sexuality in Young Adam and Asylum, is going to be making his first film in the U.S. His 2007 Mister Foe (international title Hallam Foe) is receiving a summer release. No word yet on the status of the Nico biopic that would have seen Swinton play the model-singer-actress who was part
of the Andy Warhol scene in the 1960s. Perhaps she is not young looking enough for the role?