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Wait…There’s a different Greta in Hollywood?

eff.

Anyhoo, Greta Gerwig, seen in this past summer’s horror/comedy Baghead, has been linked to star alongside Ben Stiller in Greenburg. The Hollywood Reporter, well, reports that Greenburg is the new dramedy being written/directed by Noah Baumbach (Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding).

The details of the project are not known as of now, but Gerwig and Stiller are the leads. Gerwig, who bares a strikingly similar appearance to Allison Mack from “Smallville,” (mixed with a younger Patricia Arquette) is no stranger to the Indie film circuit with starring roles in Hannah Takes the Stairs, Quick Feet, Soft Hands, and Nights and Weekends among others being released within the last year and a half. Likewise, Baumbach is already somewhat of an Indie film legend dating back to his 1995 directorial debut Kicking and Screaming with Parker Posey and Eric Stoltz (not the soccer film with Will Ferrell) and his Oscar-nominated screenplay for The Squid and the Whale. He has a penchant for writing complex and troubled characters and displaying actions without an ounce of empathy for his protagonists. Gerwig should fit in nicely.

Stiller, on the other hand, gives me pause for concern. With a Baumbach film, you need to be a really capable dramatic actor to pull it off, because the comedy in his films comes from the characters’ neuroses and brutal honesty, not necessarily from the situations they find themselves in. But, that’s not to say that Stiller is a bad actor or not an inspired choice for the film. He received mixed reviews for his dramatic portrayal of a heroin-addicted comedy writer in Permanent Midnight and showed a more serious side in Wes Anderson’s Royal Tenenbaums. He’s also a really likable guy, which could make watching him go through some sort of agonizing turmoil more barable (if that makes sense). Baumbach did the same thing in 2007 with Jack Black in Margot at the Wedding, using Black’s gift for slacker comedy to highlight some of the characters deep flaws.

Production of Greenburg begins this March.