Working with Jack Nicholson is as good as it gets.
At least that’s what writer-director James L. Brooks thinks after working with the actor for nearly three decades, even directing him in two of his three Oscar-winning performances in Terms of Endearment and As Good as It Gets.
But while Jack hasn’t appeared onscreen since James’ 2010 movie How Do You Know alongside Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd, the director is “very much in contact” with the 88-year-old—and has a bold take about Jack’s future.
“I’m sure he’ll be working again,” James told E! News in an exclusive interview on the red carpet at the Ella McCay world premiere in Los Angeles Dec. 9. “I hope it’s with me.”
Although Jack wasn’t in James’ new movie Ella McCay, starring Emma Mackey and Jamie Lee Curtis and exclusively in theaters Dec. 12, it was in part due to the storyline, as James noted, “There’s no part in this film for anybody like Jack.”
Though Jack has been staying out of the public eye—aside from some rare appearances on his daughter Lorraine Nicholson’s Instagram—James has long been vocal about seeing the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest actor back on the big screen again following his 15-year hiatus.