Will Forte, Oscar Contender? Alexander Payne’s ‘Nebraska’ to Shoot Shortly

Ever since 1999's 'Election,' Alexander Payne's films have been like catnip to the Academy. 2002's 'About Schimdt' got two nominations, 2004's 'Sideways' got five nominations and last year's 'The Descendants' also got five. Payne himself has been nominated five times and has won twice. His next film, 'Nebraska' stars Will Forte and Bruce Dern. Mathematically, this means Forte could be an Oscar contender.

Deadline Hollywood announced that Paramount has picked up the film, which will be done on a budget ($13 Million) and in black and white. Shooting is scheduled to begin mid-October. Here is the plot description:

Dern plays an alcoholic dad who receives a pro forma sweepstakes letter in the mail, thinks he’s struck it rich and wrangles his underachieving son (Forte) into taking a road trip to claim the fortune.

We're guessing they'll be some Bruce Springsteen on the soundtrack. This has been in the works for a while, but it took Paramount to finally commit. It took a while because even with Payne's track record films like this often don't play outside of the country unless they become award winners, and the black and white photography might also be seen as a negative. The last big black and white movie was 'The Artist,' which swept the Oscars, but only made $44 million stateside. Still, this is exciting, and we can't wait to see the film when it hits theaters next fall.