Nothing raises a young actor’s profile in Hollywood these days like getting yelled at by Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons. Whether he’s venting about drumming, Terminators, or that damnable public menace Spider-Man, Simmons and his fiery vocal cords are the latest crucible in which a young thespian’s mettle might be tested. Now, actor Emile Hirsch—himself no stranger to inappropriate bursts of rage and violence—is set to withstand Simmons’ legendary ire in a new comedy from The Art Of Getting By director Gavin Wiesen. The pair will star together in The Runaround, which will see Simmons as a “workaholic father” who’s forced to recruit his daughter‘s awkward ex-boyfriend (Hirsch) in an effort to find her, presumably while speaking in a calm, measured voice and phrasing all his needs as polite requests.
The Runaround will mark Hirsch’s first major project since the Into The Wild star was charged with assault in March, after allegedly attacking a Paramount executive at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. According to NBC News, Hirsch has already completed at least part of his socially mandated Hollywood redemption ritual by doing a stint in rehab, but it remains to be seen whether an anointment with Simmons’ Oscar-sanctified spittle, hurled at high velocity by the “f” sounds in “fucking failure” or the “t’s” and “s’s” of “total waste of space,” can fully baptize him for re-emergence into the mainstream moviemaking mass.