Judd Apatow Wants Tilda Swinton, John Cena, Barhad Abdi And More To Join His 'Trainwreck'

Director Judd Apatow seems to be going about things very differently with his next feature film, Trainwreck. For starters, while he has written every other movie he has ever directed, for his new one he is letting star Amy Schumer hold the pen. The filmmaker is also well known for working with the same group of actors time and time again - including Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel etc. - but this time around he is going in a much different direction. The Wrap is reporting that Tilda Swinton, John Cena, Barkhad Abdi, Mike Birbiglia, Jon Glaser, Vanessa Bayer and Ezra Miller are all now in various stage of negotiations to sign on for the upcoming comedy.

There are very few details available about the movie, but we do know that Schumer will play the lead, a trainwreck of a woman who has managed to screw up every aspect of her life and is looking to turn it all around. It was previously announced that Bill Hader will be playing the male lead in the film while Brie Larson and Colin Quinn are both attached to play supporting roles. Sadly the new casting report doesn't say what roles Cena, Abdi, Birbiglia, Glaster, Bayer and Miller will play, but sources have told the source that Swinton is in talks to play Schumer's boss (in what industry we don't know).

This new group of actors is certainly a diverse group - did you ever expect to see Swinton and Cena being mentioned in connection with the same project? - but some of you may have noticed that the project will mark a We Need To Talk About Kevin reunion for Swinton and Miller. In that In that 2011 film, the two actors played mother and son with an extremely complicated relationship - namely that Kevin (Miller) is completely insane. You can watch the trailer for the movie below:

While I suppose it's possible that I could be wrong, I have a feeling that Trainwreck will feature a much different tone than We Need To Talk About Kevin.

The new project will be Apatow's first directorial effort since This Is 40, and Universal Pictures plans to have the movie in theaters on July 24, 2015. The production is likely wrapping up the main casting portion of pre-production now, and filming will commence in the next few months. Are you excited to see the film? Are you as curious as I am to see what kind of part Barkhad Abdi will play in a comedy after earning an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a Somali pirate in Captain Phillips? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

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.