Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. and The Batman star Robert Pattinson are reportedly going to unite for a new serial killer movie from director Adam McKay, best known for films like Netflix’s Don’t Look Up, The Big Short, Step Brothers and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
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According to the reort from Puck News, McKay’s serial killer film is actually and “allegorical dramedy” titled Average Height, Average Build. The story reportedly revovles around a “a serial killer who gets into politics in an effort to change the laws to be more, well, murder-friendly.” Pattinson is apparently attached as the lead (the killer) with the report noting that McKay is amassing a “starry cast,” that will consist of “Robert Downey Jr. and more in the mix.”
Adam Mckay made a big pivot to socio-political satire after breaking out in the industry with more low-brow man-child humor during his collaborative period with the likes of Will Farrell (Anchorman, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Rick Bobby, Step Brothers, The Other Guys) and Danny McBride (Eastbound & Down). However, while McKay’s biting dramedy in works like The Big Short, Vice, Don’t Look Up and HBO’s Succession have earned him more critical and awards acclaim than he ever had, none of them have been major box office or franchise cash-cows.
As the report about Average Height, Average Build notes, this is already sounding like a collection of some of biggest-name actors out their right now, with Pattinson and Downey being two major gets in one film. That raises a lot of interesting questions about the budget and distribution plans for Average Height, Average Build – especially after McKay’s last film (Don’t Look Up) found its lane to “success” in being Netflix’s second-most-watched movie of all time.
It’s funny that Adam McKay is working with Robert Pattinson and Robert Downey Jr. – Two actors that fans are eager to see back in their respective superhero costumes. Pattinson has The Batman 2 on the horizon, while many Marvel fans are keeping fires of hope alive that Downey’s Iron Man will make an apperance in one of the Multiverse Saga event films like Avengers: Secret Wars.
McKay has also been someone people have been looking at for a superhero project; after helping Marvel Studios out with the first Ant-Man movie, McKay had meetings about a Marvel Cinematic Universe project back in 2019, with Kevin Feige confirming they want to work with him:
“I’ve not gotten a call, but I’ve seen Adam tonight and at a number of these awards and he is not only, as everybody knows, an incredibly smart guy, he is a honest to goodness fan,” Feige said in a previous interview. “And, you know, he did a lot of sort of behind-the-scenes help with us on the first Ant-Man film, and have you seen Vice? Little cameo. Little Galactus cameo that we helped him get. So I look forward to speaking with him more.”
Average Height, Average Build is in production.
