May-December casting in 'Seeking a Friend at the End of the World'

By Sarah Sluis

I remember the furor that surrounded the romantic comedy Six Days, Seven Nights, which paired up Harrison Ford with a star 27 years younger, Anne Heche. Now it appears another May-December romance is in the process of being cast. Steve Carell and Keira Knightley, 22 years his junior, appear to be starring opposite each other in Seeking a Friend at the End of the World, a dark romantic comedy that unfolds four weeks before an asteroid is set to destroy Earth. Writer Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist), a member of the Hollywood "fempire" that includes Diablo Cody, will make her directorial debut with the movie.

There's a chance, however, that the romance could have some kind of quirk that will make it work, or that it won't really be a romance in the sense we expect. The title IS Seeking a Friend at the End of the World, after all. Then there's the plot description. To paraphrase IMDB, the plot centers on Carell's mission to track down his high school sweetheart after his wife abandons him in the wake of the asteroid frenzy. Knightley plays a neighbor who just comes along for the ride, throwing a wrench in the proceedings. But that "wrench" could be l-o-v-e. I don't really see a romance between the two as believable. Carell is the everyman, and his love interests have overwhelmingly been age-appropriate, attractive choices (Catherine Keener in 40-Year-Old Virgin, Tina Fey in Date Night, Julianne Moore and Marisa Tomei in the upcoming Crazy, Stupid, Love). Knightley, too, was attached to Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean and even after that odd scene involving a beach fire and Johnny Depp consuming copious amounts of rum, a romance between her and Depp was ruled out.

But I will give the movie this. After reading this rather apocalyptic excerpt from the script, I certainly don't see how even a genius screenwriter could turn this into a romantic comedy...unless you count gallows humor. The May-December romance may end up being the easier thing to pull off.

Despite these oddities, the script has a green light and the Mandate Pictures production (the people that believed in a teen pregnancy comedy called Juno) will begin filming in May.