In what appears to be one of the more unusual career swerves in recent memory, comic and actor Amy Schumer has signed onto the drama Thank You For Your Service, an adaptation of David Finkel’s novel. American Sniper screenwriter Jason Hall is making his directorial debut with the project, which has just started production.
It’s an unusual move in that Schumer has been riding high from her star turn in this past summer’s comedy Trainwreck. She certainly has her choice of comedy roles being offered, and has already signed onto an untitled mother-daughter comedy at Fox with director Jonathan Levine. Additionally, she is reportedly writing a comedy screenplay with actress Jennifer Lawrence for the two to star in. The fourth season of Schumer’s Comedy Central series Inside Amy Schumer is set to debut this coming April, but the cable channel has already ordered a fifth season.
It is an old stereotype that comics long to play more serious roles, and indeed many comic actors do go on to appear in more dramatic films. For example, Bill Murray is well established as one of the greatest comedic actors of the last several decades, and yet he can also transition over to more dramatic roles with ease. But that was not always the case, as anyone who has seen his first attempt at a serious role, 1984’s The Razor’s Edge, can attest to. While it remains to be seen if Schumer is jumping the gun and stretching to reach further than her current talents will allow, I can’t fault her for her determination to show that she is not just a one-note performer.
Schumer will be joining a cast which consists of Miles Teller (Whiplash), Haley Bennett (The Girl On The Train), Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders), Beulah Koale (The Last Saint), Scott Haze (Child Of God), Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), Brad Beyer (42), Omar Dorsey (Selma) and Jayson Warner Smith (The Birth Of A Nation).
Deadline describes the Thank You For Your Service‘s story like this –
While Hall’s Oscar-nominated American Sniper script certainly delved into the toll that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder took on Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, Thank You For Your Service puts a growing issue of national concern in the spotlight. The film follows a group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who struggle to integrate back into family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they’ve left the battlefield.
