Just in space - Theroux to helm space rom-com

Justin Theroux is set to rewrite and perhaps direct romantic comedy Space Invader. In a delightfully surprising twist, the film is not based on the classic arcade game but on an original concept. The plot outline sees a jealous boyfriend determined to follow his astronaut girlfriend to the space station where she’ll be spending three months in zero-g with an alpha-male astronaut.

If we add to this the info that Will Arnett has been attached to the project for some time (presumably in the part of the super successful astronaut love rival), it’s all looking like quite a mirthful proposition.
Theroux is a very versatile actor (uniquely, he starred in both Mulholland Drive and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, which must mean something) and latterly a screenwriter, after he co-wrote Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller.

The project has been lingering in development purgatory for some time, after being sold by TV writers/producers Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger, who also wrote the script. ScriptShadow saw an early (2007/8) version of the screenplay and called it “hilarious” though had some concerns about a “dumb” twist at the end. It also emerges that the alpha-male love rival’s fatal flaw – in this version of the script, anyway – is an obsession with launching things into the sun, which is, even just as a concept, inexplicably funny.