Annette Bening to star in Dan Fogelman's ensemble drama 'Life, Itself'

Image from The Hollywood Reporter

By Darian Scalamoni

            Dan Fogelman had himself a great year in 2016 creating Pitch for Fox and the beloved new drama on NBC, This Is Us. He also wrote and directed his first feature film a few years back with Danny Collins and will reunite with one of the stars of said film for his next feature. According to Deadline, Annette Bening will star in Life, Itself alongside a list of other actors in the ensemble drama.

            Life, Itself is a multi-generational love story that will interweave a number of characters whose lives will intersect over decades in all different locations. Sounds like it could be another New York, I Love You or Love, Actually and with Fogelman doing a terrific job with This Is Us, he can craft something special especially with the cast. Bening joins Oscar Isaac, Samuel L. Jackson, Olivia Wilde, Antonio Banderas, Olivia Cooke, Laia Costa, Mandy Patinkin and Alex Monner. Production on the film is beginning later this month in New York before heading to Spain in May.

            Fogelman has also written other feature films like Cars, Bolt, Tangled, Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Guilt Trip. Bening was most recently seen last year in Rules Don’t Apply and 20^th Century Women, the latter for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. She was also just cast in Season 2 of American Crime Story where she’ll play the Governor of Louisiana at the time of Hurricane Katrina in the aptly-titled, Katrina: American Crime Story.