Alexander Payne Teams Up With Producers Will Ferrell & Adam McKay For New Horror Comedy

#MeToo has dragged a lot of filmmakers, but one filmmaker who seemed to avoid controversy was Alexander Payne known for “Election, and Oscar contenders”Sideways,” “The Descendants,” and “Nebraska.” In the winter of 2017 during the awards season, Payne released the sci-fi-ish comedy “Downsizing” with Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig. As is want to do during awards season, past controversies and whisper campaigns start to surface, and in 2017, everyone was basically looking through the receipts. The Daily Beast was one publication, and they published “The Forgotten Harassment Allegation Against an Oscar Winner” which leaned heavily on the 2016 article in XoJane’s titled “An Oscar Winner Bullied Me So Badly That I Quit the Film Industry.” You can pretty much gather the rest of those details.

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Fortunately for Payne, “Downsizing” wasn’t an Oscar contender and no one really cared about resurfaced allegations, unlike the ones against Casey Affleck from 2010 during his ” Manchester by the Sea” awards campaign. For better or worse, he’s remained untouched and has a new project on the horizon (Michael Shannon recently hit him with some shade too).

Payne has a comedic horror thriller in the works called “The Menu” which is set up with Will Ferrell and director Adam Mckay‘s Gary Sanchez Productions. Payne usually pens his scripts, but this one is written by Will Tracy, and Seth Reiss and McKay, Will Ferrell, and Betsy Koch will produce under the Gary Sanchez banner.

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Variety says of the plot: “the pic is set in the world of high-end culinary culture. The story centers on a young couple who visits an exclusive destination restaurant on a remote island where the acclaimed chef has prepared a lavish tasting menu, along with some shocking surprises.”

Obviously, there’s no mention of horror in that logline, but it sounds there’s kind of some cannibalism aspect to the film. Perhaps it has some black comedy aspects to it like Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 1991 film “Delicatessen” which featured a deranged butcher who sold human meat to his customers after luring unsuspecting victims to his house with job opportunities. The plot sounds vastly different, but don’t be surprised if “Delicatessen” is at least a small touchpoint along with possibly 1982’s cult classic “Eating Raoul” or  1989’s “Parents” directed by Bob Balaban.

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The package of Payne, McKay, and Ferrell, is set to hit the market soon and it’s likely a lot of studios will be attracted by it regardless of Payne’s recent controversies, which are arguably non-existent since no one seemed to notice during the glut of #MeToo accusations and resurfaced transgressions. There’s not currently timeline on a production start, obviously, it has to find a cast first (though package suggests, some actors are already loosely attached), but Variety say it would be Payne’s next feature.