The English-language remake of Force Majeure is finally coming together. After Julia Louis-Dreyfus signed on all the way back in 2015 to star in the American version of the acclaimed Swedish drama, the new version of the film stalled. But a co-star has finally been found for her in the form of Will Ferrell.
Ferrell and Louis-Dreyfus will star as a husband and wife duo on holiday with their family at a ski lodge, only for things to go sour quickly after a small but important decision is made by one of them when an avalanche seemingly begins.
Director Ruben Östlund‘s original 2014 film is a mix of hilarity and sadness as the nucleus of a family begins to crumble. The film was infamously snubbed of a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, but now directors Jim Rash and Nat Faxon (The Way Way Back) will hope to right that wrong with their version.
The duo are successful on-screen performers in their own right, but they have previously won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants, and this project will mark their first directorial effort since helming some episodes of Community in 2015.
With Ferrell and Dreyfus on board – two comedy veterans – it will be interesting to see how the tone of the film is handled. The original so deftly captured the mix of conflicting emotions, but the story itself certainly could be taken in a very comedic direction, although that would rob the film of much of its power.
Jesse Armstrong, writer of dark comedy Four Lions and the new acclaimed series Succession, is on board to pen the screenplay, so it will be mostly his job to handle that tonal balance.
After a long wait, production on the film is due to get underway in Austria in early 2019.
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