Adam McKay won’t be moving forward with “Average Height, Average Build,” a comedy about a serial killer that was set to star Robert Pattinson, Amy Adams and Robert Downey Jr. Netflix was set to produce the star-studded film, but the streamer won’t make the project without McKay’s involvement behind the camera, sources have confirmed to Variety.
Instead, the writer-director will reportedly focus on a film about climate change, a subject that seems about as ripe for laughs as murderers. However, McKay has found humour in dark subjects before – he tackled the 2008 financial crash in “The Big Short”, the Iraq war in “Vice” and natural disasters in “Don’t Look Up”. It’s unclear how he’ll tackle the growing threat to the planet, or whether Netflix will be involved.
In Average Height, Average Build, Pattinson was set to play a serial killer who hires a lobbyist to work on his behalf to change the law so he can kill with impunity. Downey was set to play a cop obsessed with bringing the killer to justice in this sendup of Beltway dysfunction.
McKay won an Oscar for writing The Big Short. He was nominated for directing that film and Vice. He was also nominated for his screenplay for “Vice” and for “Don’t Look Up”, which, like “The Big Short”, was up for Best Picture. McKay was a head writer for Saturday Night Live before directing Anchorman, The Other Guys, Step Brothers and Talladega Nights. Netflix produced Don’t Look Up.
