Having mastered a successful film career for himself playing neurotic young adults in Adventureland, Zombieland and culminating in an Oscar nominated performance in The Social Network, actor Jesse Eisenberg was always bound to end up on Woody Allen's radar sooner or later. The legendary writer/director once upon a time made a career himself on portraying a heightened neurotic version of himself but these days he casts actors like Larry David or Owen Wilson to be his vessel for love & life anxiety plays. Now Eisenberg, noticeably the youngest he's used in a while, gets his shot. Variety say Eisenberg has joined Allen's Rome-set romantic drama that will film this summer and in addition, the wonderful Ellen Page will join him. The two former darlings of independent cinema but now much in demand mainstream actors will star alongside the already cast Penelope Cruz and Alec Baldwin (his casting we meant to write about the other day but forgot, sorry) but there's no sniff of plot details or even a film title just yet, though we do know Woody Allen himself will have a small part. If I was to guess... Eisenberg will be playing the lead as a young American who travels to Italy and discovers some life lessons and gets romantic entangled way above his head, but I could be wrong. That's not all to be excited about though if you are a big Woody Allen fan. It's been announced that the legendary cinematic icon will be the subject of a three hour 'American Masters' documentary from Robert Weide, a frequent director on Curb Your Enthusiasm and helmer of How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, who has chronicled Allen's journey from his Brooklyn childhood into the success figure he is today. The documentary will also go behind the scenes into his home, onto film sets and document his personal life like never before. Weide says;
"The prolific nature of Woody's output has provided me with an embarrassment of riches... Even with three hours at my disposal I feel the heartbreak of all the things I have to leave out. In fact, Woody will have made three features just in the time it's taken me to make this one documentary."
Titled Woody Allen: A Documentary, the film will air on PBS in the fall. In the meantime, Allen's ensemble romantic drama Midnight in Paris opens the Cannes Film Festival on May 11th.