Noah Baumbach Recruits Ben Stiller, James Franco, Greta Gerwig, Cate Blanchett for WHILE WE’RE YOUNG

Writer/director Noah Baumbach is prepping his next film, While We’re Young, and as usual, he’s culling an excellent cast.  Ben Stiller and James Franco are attached to star, with offers out to Greta Gerwig and Cate Blanchett.  Franco is the only newbie to the land of Baumbach.  Stiller and Gerwig assumed the lead roles in his last film, Greenberg; Blanchett acted in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, the script of which Baumbach co-wrote.

Vulture indicates the story centers on “a free-spirited Brooklynite twenty-something couple (Franco and Gerwig) who inspires an uptight documentarian (Stiller) and his wife (Blanchett) to loosen up — with comedic consequences.”  More after the jump.

It’s rumored that the role earmarked for Blanchett was originally intended for Jennifer Jason Leigh.  Unfortunately, the actress filed for divorce from Mr. Baumbach last week.  So… nope.

Baumbach also has The Emperor’s Children (but not Mr. Popper’s Penguins) in the pipeline.  It appears While We’re Young is first in line, but either way, I believe we’ll have a Baumbach-directed film in 2011.  Plus, he’s producing Peter Bogdanovich’s Squirrel to the Nuts and is somewhat ridiculously credited on the screenplay for Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist.  Should be a good year for Baumbach fans.

These actors are all very good, and so in high demand, with upwards of a dozen projects between them.  I’ll recap each as soullessly: in bullet form.

BEN STILLER

• Little Fockers opens on December 22nd
• Stiller will headline the aforementioned Tower Heist opposite Eddie Murphy
• A Zoolander sequel is in the works

JAMES FRANCO

• Franco will host this year’s Academy Awards with Anne Hathaway
• Your Highness opens on April 8, 2011
• Rise of the Apes opens on June 24, 2011
• Franco has optioned Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and The Adderall Diaries as potential directing vehicles, with a Saturday Night Live documentary in the can
• The actor has also been linked to The Iceman and Ricky Stanicky

GRETA GERWIG

• No Strings Attached opens January 21, 2011
• Arthur is set to open sometime next year
• Gerwig and Adam Brody are the leads in Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress

CATE BLANCHETT

• Hanna opens on April 8, 2011