Jennifer Garner May Join Kevin Costner In Ivan Reitman's Draft Day

We've been writing about the upcoming Ivan Reitman-directed football dramedy Draft Day for a while now, but over the last few months the only casting news we heard about the project was when Kevin Costner entered talks to be a part of the film last September. But unless this is part of some very obscure April Fools joke, it would seem that the Man of Steel actor has finally found a co-star.

Variety is reporting that Jennifer Garner is now in talks to join Draft Day, which is actually being planned as an ensemble film. As the title implies, the movie centers on the manager of an American football team who wheels, deals and struggles to try and get the number one pick. While its unclear at this point how her character will fit into the film, the trade notes that she "will play Costner’s secretary in the pic."

The project has had a good deal of trouble getting made, but finally now seems to be on the fast track. Last fall Paramount put the film into turnaround, but after the script found its way to the top of the Black List - the annual list of the most popular unproduced screenplays in Hollywood - Summit scooped it up and now has it in active development. The latest report doesn't mention when they are planning to start production.

Garner, who had her second son with husband Ben Affleck last year, most recently appeared in the family-friendly The Odd Life of Timothy Green last summer and recently completed production on Jean-Marc Vallée's Dallas Buyers Club, co-starring Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Steve Zahn.

Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.