Relatively fresh off her second Oscar victory for Judy, Reneé Zellweger has signed on to star in golf comedy The Back Nine, which will see Sex And The City‘s Michael Patrick King directing from a script he wrote alongside Jhoni Marchinko and Krista Smith.
Zellweger will play Casey Jones, who gave up a golf career so her husband could have one. When she wakes up one morning to find her 25-year old marriage in free fall and her son off to college, she dusts off the clubs she tossed aside years ago in an effort to finally turn pro and redefine the ‘back nine’ of her life.
The film is set up at Landline Pictures, a new label formed by Amy Baer, the former senior executive at Sony Pictures and CBS Films. Baer will make this her first film, and she will produce with King.
“Jhoni and Krista and I are very excited to have the amazing Reneé Zellweger do our movie The Back Nine“, said King in a statement. “A stunning actress with incredible range, she can make you laugh and cry and has a great golf swing. What more could anyone want?”
Baer added: “Landline is so fortunate to launch with Back Nine anchoring our inaugural slate. It’s the perfect film for our mandate – star-driven, aspirational, relatable, and wildly funny. Michael and Renee are a formidable team and are going to make a classic movie for a broad audience”.
There’s a running trend of best actress winners deciding to star in a comedy soon after their big win. Anne Hathaway did with The Intern after her Les Miserables win, Natalie Portman did her only romcom No Strings Attached after winning the gold statue for Black Swan, and Zellweger even did it once before after winning for Chicago, starring in throwback romcom Down With Love.
Golf is not exactly considered a great “movie sport” like baseball or boxing, which often seem well suited to cinema. When you think of golf movies, movies like Happy Gilmore and Caddyshack come to mind.
The closest comparison to The Back Nine might be the Kevin Costner/Rene Russo 1996 comedy/romance/drama/bad title Tin Cup.
The Back Nine has the opportunity to comfortably work its way into conversation as one of the best golf movies of all time if it’s any good. With Zellweger starring, and writers of Sex And The City, Will & Grace, and Murphy Brown working on the script, there’s a good chance it’ll be worth checking out.
#Peace.Love.TheBackNine
