Brendan Fraser sets Rental Family as first post-Oscar lead

Brendan Fraser is ready to continue his revival, landing his first leading role after winning the Academy Award for The Whale. Fraser will star in Hikari’s Rental Family, which comes from a script co-written by Hikari and Stephen Blahut.

As per Deadline, Rental Family “follows a down and out actor living in Tokyo, who is hired as a token American guy for a Japanese rental family company, leading him on an unexpected journey of self-discovery through the roles he plays in other people’s lives.” Filming will begin in spring 2024 in Japan. No other cast has been announced outside of Brendan Fraser at this time.

So far, Brendan Fraser has avoided the post-Oscar slump that the likes of Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Maguire), Adrian Brody (The Pianist) and so many others have suffered. In fact, his first picture after his Best Actor win was for Martin Scorsese in Killers of the Flower Moon. Unfortunately for his immediate follow-up, Fraser’s performance was criticized for his delivery, forcing Scorsese to come to his defense by saying, “We thought he’d be great for the lawyer and I admired his work over the years…We had a really good time working together, particularly with Leo…Really for us, when we heard that he brought the whole scene down on Leo it was perfect. And had that girth, he’s big in the frame at that time. He’s a wonderful actor, and he was just great to work with.” Despite some skeptical takes on his turn in Killers of the Flower Moon, the performance and casting can hardly be considered a bad move on his part. Heck, after Life Is Beautiful Robert Benigni directed Pinocchio!

Hikari is best known for directing 2019’s 37 Seconds and three episodes of the Netflix limited series Beef, which is nominated for nine Emmy Awards to be decided at January’s ceremony. Stephen Blahut actually served as cinematographer on 37 Seconds.

In addition to winning the Oscar for The Whale, Brendan Fraser also won the SAG Award and was nominated for the Golden Globe.

Do you think Brendan Fraser can have a strong follow-up to The Whale? Does Family Rental sounds like a worthwhile project for him? Give us your thoughts below!