Nicole Kidman and Amy Schumer Are Making a Movie About Tug Boats and Opera

Out of all the Hollywood careers you’d expect to collide at this point Amy Schumer, our reigning queen of every woman comedy, and Nicole Kidman, at this point the world’s most famous art house cinema thespian, might be amongst the least likely suspects.

Then again, out of all the subject matter you’d expect to be tied together in one movie script the world of tug boats and the world of opera would also make a less than obvious combination.

Yet, somehow, all of these disparate elements are coming together for a new film, and Steve Carrell is along for the ride, too.

The Schumer-Kidman-Carrell troika have signed on to top line She Came To Me, the next film from indie director Rebecca Miller.

There’s not a lot of information about what exactly the film is all about, but Variety reports it centers on, “two intertwining love stories, set in the world of contemporary opera and tug boats.” The Hollywood Reporter adds it’s “a sweeping comedic drama, a multigenerational story about family and the complexities of modern life.” The film will be an indie production from OddLot Entertainment, the company just coming off of success with Hell or High Water.

So, basically, Schumer, Kidman, tug boats, opera, and a noted indie auteur all coming together in a dramedy? Should be interesting.

The project was compelling enough that Schumer dropped out of starring in a big budget Barbie doll movie (a project that made lots of headlines when it was announced) to sign on. After success in mainstream comedy with her Comedy Central project and her box office hit Trainwreck, it seems Schumer is dipping her toes into the more serious indie film waters (she’ll also appear in the upcoming war-drama Thank You For Your Service). It something that seems pretty much de rigueur for comedy stars after Bill Murray’s later career. It can certainly help build and round out a comedian career. For more evidence: just see what Little Miss Sunshine did for Carrell’s own career trajectory in 2006.

For Kidman, taking the role seems right on even if she may not be known for her comedic chops in a lot of the public’s mind. Still, Kidman seems to keep a running list of all the world’s noted auteurs somewhere in her phone and is intent on checking off working with them all. After recent or upcoming work with Warner Herzog, Sofia Coppola, Chan-wook Park and John Cameron Mitchell amongst others, it was only a matter of time until she teamed up with Miller.

And while many seems to be convinced she’s “back” and “doing her best work in years” thanks to Big Little Lies (note: she’s been nominated for 2 Oscars, 4 Golden Globes, and an Emmy since 2010 alone, come on, she didn’t go anywhere), it is true she’s enjoying a certain pop culture resurgence. Something even she seems to be aware of.

“It’s an amazing reaction because I’m usually either in very avant-garde art films, or unusual films, or things that are very, very divisive,” she recently told Vogue about the public’s reaction her HBO mini-series. “To be in something that is so accessible and still topical is very interesting to me.”

So maybe teaming with Schumer and Carrell could keep the moment going. We also know she’s had killer comedic chops ever since her breakout role in To Die For.

It should certainly be interesting to see them together. Kathy Griffin, one of Schumer’s most immediate foremothers of “I’m just a woman telling it like it is” comedy, once named a special Kathy Griffin is …not Nicole Kidman poking fun of how separated the show business careers of a noted female stand-up and an A-list actress like Kidman once were. Things certainly have changed.

As for Miller, the director and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis, is relatively new to comedy. After a career directing drama, she shifted focus last year with Maggie’s Plan, a screwball twist on romantic comedy conventions. It wasn’t a major hit, but it did delight critics.

While the film had a cast that included Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke, Travis Fimmel and padded out by SNL vets Maya Rudolph and Bill Hader, it was Julianne Moore who found herself with the broadest comedic role; that of an eccentric Ivy League professor with a Danish accent.

So don’t be surprised if Kidman gets the most comedic material to work with. Hmm, perhaps the movie will find Kidman as an over-the-top Opera diva juxtaposed against Schumer’s salt-of-the-earth tugboat captain straight woman. Seems plausible.

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