Back in 2009, Alexander Payne was close to beginning work on a movie titled Downsizing with Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon and Sacha Baron Cohen starring. Obviously that never came to be as Payne went on to direct The Descendents and then Nebraska, but he’s finally coming back to the film which he wrote with his Sideways and About Schmidt co-writer Jim Taylor with Matt Damon set to star.
Described as a social satire, the film tells the story of a man and his wife who decide their lives have gotten out of hand, and would be better should they have themselves shrunk down. Unfortunately for the man, his wife backs out at the last minute. There’s no word on whether or not the script has changed in the last five years, but Witherspoon was previously attached to play a woman the lead character meets on his journey as a miniature person and Baron Cohen was to play a pint-sized foreigner.
With Damon choosing to take the role it means he won’t be starring in Zhang Yimou‘s The Great Wall as was announced Deadline]
