To us, he’ll always be Guy “Shades” Patterson, the improvising drummer who took The Wonders to the next level in Tom Hanks’ wonderful That Thing You Do!. But we recognize that Tom Everett Scott has worked steadily since that winning 1996 musical comedy, and he’s adding another high-profile acting gig to his resume.
Scott will star as Marisa Tomei’s husband in the upcoming Us & Them, a comedy from 20th Century Fox and Walden Media that The Hollywood Reporter says will tackle “old-school versus new-school parenting.” Tomei and Scott represent the new-school parents, while they trade notes, Bette Midler and Billy Crystal (who produces) are stepping in for the old-school style of discipline. The plot finds grandparents clashing with their new-age daughter when they are asked to babysit their grandchild.
Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse worked on the original screenplay for Us, though it since has been polished by Oscar-nominated screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. Their credited work on Ron Howard’s underrated Parenthood automatically qualifies them as a great team for a project such as this, though I’m also encouraged by the personal touches they managed to inject into A League of Their Own and the City Slickers films. It also shows that they know how to write for Crystal. Both he and Midler, who dominated mainstream comedies in the 80s and 90s, have been off screen for too long, and Us sounds like the ideal “return” vehicle for their talents.
Us & Them reportedly begins shooting in Atlanta this fall, with The Game Plan director Andy Fickman at the helm.
