Taika Waititi and Ellen Burstyn will be teaming up to explore that most classic of cinematic genres: “Two people become friends while going on a journey to restore a lost racing pigeon to its home.” (It’s right up there with “buddy cop” and “a superhero works out his parental trauma by punching a big, glowing portal” as far as film tropes go.) Waititi and Burstyn, per Deadline, have both signed on to star in Place To Be, the latest drama from Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó.
Mundruczó, who previously garnered international attention with films like White God and Pieces Of A Woman—which co-starred Burstyn, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for star Vanessa Kirby—will direct the film from a screenplay by his frequent collaborator, Kata Wéber. Per its logline, the film will center on “the unlikely friendship of an elderly woman (Burstyn) and middle-aged man (Waititi) as they travel from Chicago to New York to return a lost racing pigeon home.”
It’s been a minute since audiences have seen either actor in theaters: Burstyn, who makes semi-regular appearances as Christopher Meloni’s mom on Law & Order: Organized Crime, last appeared on the big screen with a small part in 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer, reprising her role from the 1973 original. Waititi, meanwhile, has been keeping his head down in TV, having put recent creative energies into his Apple TV+ adaptation of Time Bandits, where he played the Supreme Being. (As far as film acting goes, he gave himself a small part in his 2023 film Next Goal Wins, but hasn’t appeared in someone else’s movies since his voice role in 2022’s disastrous Disney flop Lightyear.) All three principals issued effusive statements about the upcoming film, but since Waititi’s was the only one where anyone talked about driving off a cliff, we figured we’d just go with that one:
This is unlike any role I’ve ever done and I’ve always adored Ellen’s work. All of us are just navigating this weird journey of getting older and figuring out who the hell we are along the way, so when I read the script, I was deeply moved by Kata’s words and Kornel’s vision. Growing up in New Zealand, it was just me and my mum—this tiny dynamic duo against the world. When this role came along, I thought, “Oh my god, it’s like me and mum all over again, except we’ve both aged several decades overnight and Ellen gets to be the Thelma to my Louise.” Though I’m still not entirely sure which one of us drives off the cliff in this scenario.
