Jerry And Marge Go Large - What We Know So Far
A true story about a couple small town residents who won big at the lottery is currently in the works for a Paramount+ release, as reported by Deadline. The fairly new streaming service, formerly known as CBS All Access, is working on building its film library. So far, Paramount+ is known primarily for television shows, including "The Good Fight," the reboot of "The Twilight Zone," and the more recent "iCarly" revival.
The new film, titled "Jerry and Marge Go Large," will be directed by David Frankel, whose credits include 2006's "The Devil Wears Prada" and 2008's "Marley and Me," as well television episodes for shows such as "Sex and the City" and, more recently, "The Morning Show." The screenplay of "Jerry and Marge Go Large" is written by ("Arrested Development," "Ferdinand") and is based on an original Huffington Post longform article by journalist Jason Fagone.
Here's everything else we know so far about "Jerry and Marge Go Large."
When will Jerry and Marge Go Large be released?
As of now, there is not yet an official release date for "Jerry and Marge Go Large." According to Deadline, in an article from June 2021, principal production was scheduled to begin in July 2021 Movie Insider reports that the film is officially in production as of this month. The article that the film is based on was published by Huffington Post on March 1, 2018, making this project already a few years in the making.
With the film currently in production, we can likely expect to see "Jerry and Marge Go Large" sometime in 2022, likely in the latter half of the year, considering we are already nearing August 2021 and production has just begun. In fact, production is in such an early stage that only a few cast members have been announced to the public so far.
Which brings us to the next bit of information we know so far
Who will be in Jerry and Marge Go Large?
First of all, who is playing the titular Jerry and Marge ? As reported by Deadline, the two lead roles of Jerry and Marge Selbee will be played by Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening. Cranston is, of course, most known for his role as Walter White on the ultra popular and acclaimed drama series, "Breaking Bad." Since his time on the drama, he has starred in films such as 2015's "Trumbo" and 2017's "The Upside," as well as returning to TV with the Showtime miniseries "Your Honor" in 2020. Meanwhile, Bening is a veteran actor herself, having been working in Hollywood since the '80s. Bening is known for starring in films such as 1995's "The American President," 1999's "American Beauty" and 2010's "The Kids Are All Right," to name a few.
Additionally, Variety reported that two more actors had been added to the roster: Rainn Wilson and Larry Wilmore. Since playing his iconic role of Dwight Schrute on "The Office," Wilson has appeared in projects such as the Amazon Prime sci-fi series "Utopia" in 2020 and the CBS sitcom "Mom." Wilmore, who is primarily a screenwriter (including for shows such as "Insecure" and "Grown-ish"), has recently acted in 2020's "Upload" on Prime Video and 2019's "The Laundromat" on Netflix. It has not yet been announced who Wilson and Wilmore will be portraying in "Jerry and Marge Go Large."
What is the plot of Jerry and Marge Go Large?
The film's source material, "Jerry and Marge Go Large" by Jason Fagone, details how a couple from a small town in Michigan, Jerry and Marge Selbee, ended up winning $7.75 million by playing the lottery.
While looking for hobbies after retirement, Jerry, a naturally gifted mathematician, decided to look into the logistics of the lottery to see if he could apply math to the process to help him increase his chances of winning — and he does. More specifically, Jerry found a loophole, in which the roll-down system — which applies when there is no jackpot winner (one who guesses all six numbers correctly) and the prize money trickles down to the lower tier winners — allowed for higher earnings for lesser winners in the lack of a jackpot winner, as long as enough money was invested.
This finding became a years-long saga for Jerry and Marge that went way beyond their small town. As Fagone puts it in the HuffPost article, the loophole "would eventually make Jerry and Marge millionaires, spark an investigation by a Boston Globe Spotlight reporter, unleash a statewide political scandal and expose more than a few hypocrisies at the heart of America's favorite form of legalized gambling."
We can expect to see all of that play out when "Jerry and Marge Go Large" comes out.