Looking at the screenwriting credits for Alex Kurtzman it is such a mixed bag of quality it’s hard to believe he was involved in each of the projects outside of the obvious genre similarities.
Kurtzman was part of the writing team on films such as Mission: Impossible III and Star Trek and then you look a little deeper and he also wrote Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Legend of Zorro, The Island and Cowboys & Aliens. To what level he was involved in each project is unclear so I don’t know whether or not I should get excited for his directorial debut, People Like Us. Then again, it’s not as if we are talking about a film in the same genre as those I just listed off.
On top of making his directorial debut, Kurtzman also co-wrote People Like Us with his frequent writing partner Roberto Orci as well as Jody Lambert and he’s brought with him a talented cast mined from a couple of those films I mentioned above including Chris Pine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Jon Favreau and Mark Duplass.
The story follows a businessman (Pine) who returns home after his estranged father’s death and discovers that he has an alcoholic sister with a 12-year-old son. He is forced to reexamine his own life while trying to form new bonds with his family.
People Like Us hits theaters on June 29, have a look at the trailer below and tell me what you think of Kurtzman’s new dance with drama.