After years playing the nice guy, or at least the nice guy on the surface, Jason Bateman is about to get mean. The actor made his feature directorial debut at TIFF last year with Bad Words, and following a brilliant reception amongst audiences, the film will be heading into cinemas stateside in the spring.
The red-band first trailer was easily one of the best trailers of the year. And after launching a new trailer earlier in the month, Focus has debuted the first poster over on Yahoo Movies, which doesn’t leave much to the imagination as to what Bateman’s Guy Trilby is about to say, with a great little Machiavellian tagline to boot.
Guy Trilby is a 40-year-old man seeking catharsis in his life. He seizes the ideal that this will come for him through the National Spelling Bee; after discovering a loophole in the rules, Guy zealously joins the competition and easily outpaces the pre-teen field in match after match. As reporter Jenny Widgeon delves into Guy’s story, Guy finds himself forging an unlikely friendship with a competitor, awkward 10-year-old Chaitanya, which may spell things differently for his future.
Bateman tops a stellar ensemble, starring alongside Kathryn Hahn, Rohan Chand, Ben Falcone, Allison Janney, Philip Baker Hall, Rachael Harris, Ethan Dizon, and Beth Grant.
Andrew Dodge makes his own debut penning the script, with Bateman also making his debut as a producer on the film.
Bad Words will begin its limited US release on March 14th before opening wide on March 28th. Still no word yet on a UK release date, but here’s to hoping that that will change very soon.
