The Help co-stars Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer will be reuniting on the big screen for an upcoming Christmas-themed comedy, Variety reports.
While the film has yet to be given a title, release date or official plot details, it is being compared to 1987’s John Candy and Steve Martin-led road trip classic, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, in that it will follow the duo as they attempt to make it home for the holidays. The film landed at Universal after a bidding war with Fox and Paramount.
As she is doing with her upcoming films Painkiller Jane and Seducing Ingrid Bergman, Chastain will produce through her Freckle Films banner in addition to starring; president of production and development at Freckle Films, Kelly Carmichael will also produce, along with Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler. Peter Chiarelli (The Proposal) will pen the film’s script based on a treatment by Chastain and Carmichael.
Both Chastain and Spencer are coming off of critically-acclaimed, award-garnering 2017 performances, in Molly’s Game and The Shape of Water, respectively (the latter of which being helmed by Guillermo del Toro, who directed Chastain in 2015’s Crimson Peak). Spencer, especially, is likely to get an Oscar nomination for her supporting role in the film, when the nominees are revealed next week.
Although Chastain hasn’t dabbled too much in the world of comedy, as her most memorable turns come from more dramatic works, such as The Tree of Life, Zero Dark Thirty and Miss Sloane, Spencer is a proven comedic force, exercising her chops in CBS’s Mom, Dinner for Schmucks and Gifted.
Originally published January 18, 2018. Updated January 17, 2018.
