Hot Package: Adam McKay Lines Up Robert Pattinson, Amy Adams, Robert Downey Jr, Forest Whitaker & Danielle Deadwyler For Serial Killer Comedy ‘Average Height, Average Build’

Oscar winner Adam McKay has lined up Rob Pattinson, Amy Adams, Robert Downey Jr, Forest Whitaker and Till‘s Danielle Deadwyler to head the ensemble cast of his next directing vehicle. Titled Average Height, Average Build, the script and package is out to studios and streamers, and the intention is to get it into production by late summer or early fall.

Much the way that the McKay-crafted series Succession and his films Don’t Look Up and The Big Short told entertaining stories that reflect what’s going on in the world, Average Height, Average Build sounds like a pretty ingenious marriage of a black comedy premise with the corruption that rife in politics.

Pattinson will play a serial killer who enlists a lobbyist (Adams) to change laws that will allow him to get away with murder more easily. Downey’s role is a retired cop who won’t give up on the murders, and the killer tries to prevent him from dogging his trail now that he’s hung up his gun. The serial killer turns himself into a cause celebre, a Mr. Smith Goes to Washington figure shielding his true motives.

Hyperobject Industries’ McKay and Kevin Messick are producing. The script has been shopped without a budget, and with that killer cast it should be set soon. McKay has been talking about making a dirty money movie since he promoted Don’t Look Up, which shined a light on global warming without making audiences feel they were being fed spinach.

The film marks a reunion for McKay and Adams, who worked together on the Oscar-nominated political satire Vice. As for Pattinson, The Batman had been weighing options after recently wrapping production on the sci-fi thriller Mickey 17, which has Bong Joon Ho directing.

Stay tuned.