A few months ago Jason Heid and I went back in forth in the comments of this FrontBurner post about Jason Reitman’s George Clooney-starring Up in the Air. Somewhere in there I compared Reitman to Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election). Jason didn’t like that so much. But now a real similarity: Alexander Payne has begun to shoot a new film called The Descendants staring none other than George Clooney. According to Fox Searchlight, the film will be “a sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki.  The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.”

In related news, Sideways star Paul Giamatti has begun shooting on a new film by Tom McCarthy (The Visitor, The Station Agent) called Win Win. Here’s their studio blurb:

Struggling attorney Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti), who moonlights as a high school wrestling coach, becomes legal guardian of an elderly client in an attempt to help keep his practice afloat. When the client’s teenage grandson runs away from home and shows up on his grandfather’s doorstep, Mike’s family life and his wrestling team are turned upside down.  Mike’s win-win proposition turns into something much more complicated than he ever bargained for.  McCarthy’s deft touch balancing drama and comedy, broken hearts and poignant humanity is at play in Win Win.