Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" Underway

By our guest blogger, Colin George

What’s that? I almost dozed off amidst all the talk of “Spider-Man” reboots and “Avatar” box-office milestones. According to /Film, something much more exciting is now underway, which believe it or not has nothing to do with comic books or James Cameron.

Rather, news arrives that Alexander Payne has officially begun pre-production on his fifth feature film, “The Descendants,” which will be shot on location in Hawaii and has a tentative 2011 release date with George Clooney set to star. The story is based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings about a “wryly introspective attorney” (a real stretch for Clooney) who travels from Oahu to Kauai with his two daughters to confront a real estate broker who had an affair with his now comatose wife.

The material sounds like a perfect fit for Payne’s droll sensibility, and Clooney will be joining the ranks of Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”), Jack Nicholson (“About Schmidt”), Matthew Broderick (“Election”) and Laura Dern (“Citizen Ruth”) in giving life to the director’s hilariously flawed comic protagonists.

Excluding his contributions to “Paris, je t’aime” and HBO’s “Hung,” "The Descendants" marks Payne's return to the director's chair after an almost six year absence.

And it’s good to have him back.