After making audiences laugh for five seasons on “New Girl,” Max Greenfield is taking a big step forward in the dramatic field as he’s in talks to star with Brie Larson in Lionsgate’s adaptation of “The Glass Castle.”
Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts are also on board to star in the film from “Short Term 12” director Destin Daniel Cretton.
Lionsgate had no comment.
The pic is based on Jeannette Walls’ memoir about a young girl who comes of age in a dysfunctional family of nonconformist nomads. Walls’ eccentric mother and alcoholic father would stir the children’s imagination with hope as a distraction to their poverty.
Greenfield will play Jeannette’s loyal, but distant husband. He had a privileged upbringing, and is now living in Westchester and working in finance. He tries to understand and help Jeannette cope with her parents’ unexpected arrival.
Cretton and Andrew Lanham penned the latest draft with Gil Netter producing. Production is set to start in June.
Though he is best known as the lovable Schmidt on “New Girl” (which earned him a Golden Globe nomination), Greenfield has begun to make more strides in other genres.
He is currently co-starring with Sally Field in “Hello, My Name is Doris,” which is not only a hit at the specialty box office, but also earned Greenfield some of the best reviews of his career. Greenfield is producing “Fist Fight” starring Charlie Day and Ice Cube, which was his own original pitch that New Line acquired.
Greenfield is repped by WME.
