Jessica Chastain and Joel Edgerton get ambitious with The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby

February 3rd 2012, 1:23pm

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The new hotness actors Joel Edgerton and Jessica Chastain have signed on the star in two movies…that are the same movie? Only different?

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY: HIS and THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ELEANOR RIGBY: HERS (from the popular Beatles song “Eleanor Rigby”) are two interconnected films, likely told from two different points of view from both Edgerton and Chastain’s characters is described as a New York love story about a restauranteer (Edgerton) and his wife (Chastain) who is going back to college. William Hurt is also rumored to join the pic in an unknown role.

Ned Benson (IN DEFIANCE OF GRAVITY) wrote both scripts and will direct both films. Myriad head Kirk D’Amico said, “Ned has created rich and engaging characters. They are complex, and it is unique to have two different scripts to tell the story. It doesn’t matter which script you read first; you absolutely want to read the other perspective.”

Both films will be stand alone films, which I guess means you don’t HAVE to see the other one to understand its counterpart. It sounds like an ambiguous gamble to me, but certainly an intriguing idea as well. I’m interested to hear and see more. I was impressed with Edgerton’s performance in WARRIOR (as well as his Oscar-worthy turn in STAR WARS: EPISODE 2 – ATTACK OF THE CLONES) and recently my wife held me at gunpoint and handcuffed me to the couch to watch THE HELP, which ended up being a damn fine film, with an engaging performance from Chastain.

So, yeah, they can act. The pair are also working together on director Kathryn Bigelow’s “Bin Laden” pic, slated to be released later this year.

Maybe I’m just being a nitpicky baby, but if I were to see this in theaters (I won’t, unless I’m held at gunpoint on Valentine’s Day…again), I’d likely face a conundrum if both films are out at the same time:

“One for ‘Eleanor Rigby’, please”
“Which one, sir?”
“Huh?”
“Which ‘Eleanor Rigby’?”
“Uh, the one with Joel Edgerton and Jessica Chastain?”
“They’re in both of them, sir. Do you want to see ‘The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: His or Hers’?”
“What?”
“They’re two different films, sir. But, the same characters.”
“Oh f*ck. Is there a new Chipmunks movie out?”