Chris Pine “never really wanted to direct,” he says. But the actor was thrown in the deep end with his upcoming directorial debut, the indie comedy Poolman, about a down-on-his luck pool technician who discovers a water heist to rival Chinatown.
“I woke up one day and it just seemed like it was fated that I was going to direct this film,” the Star Trek star told THR on the red carpet for spy thriller All the Old Knives. Pine co-wrote the film and stars as the titular pool boy — er, man — alongside Annette Bening and Danny DeVito.
“It was an idea that I had years ago. I was sitting with Patty Jenkins, shooting the shit, and it came up, and we started talking about ‘poolman’ … and that made me laugh. I just followed that giggle, and that giggle led to an idea.” Jenkins, who directed Pine in Warner Bros. and DC’s Wonder Woman franchise and TNT’s I Am the Night, is a producer on the film. It is scheduled to begin production in June.
A version of this story first appeared in the March 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
