unretirement plan

Cameron Diaz Unretires From Acting for an Annie (2014) Reunion

Y2K is back. Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos by Getty Images

The grapes at the Avaline vineyard will simply have to wait to be plucked or wither on the vine, because Cameron Diaz is going back to acting, baby. Diaz stars opposite Jamie Foxx in Back in Action for Netflix. Read on for the cast listproduction woesplotrelease date, and the brand-new trailer.

Why is Tom Brady involved?

Diaz will break her cinematic fallow period (vineyard term?) with a Netflix action-comedy called Back in Action — which has nothing to do with the 2003 Looney Tunes action-comedy of the same name. Diaz will star opposite Jamie Foxx, whom she shared the screen with in her last film role to date as Miss Hannigan in 2014’s Annie. And because the only thing everyone agrees on and loves more than the 2014 version of Annie is Tom Brady, Foxx surprised Diaz with a call from the quarterback, because he’s “relatively successful at unretiring.” Ha! Jamie Foxx surprising someone with a three-way call? How very Lizzie McGuire of him.

But Tom Brady is not in this movie. Exclude him from this narrative! Back in Action instead co-stars Kyle Chandler, Glenn Close, Andrew Scott, Jamie Demetriou, McKenna Roberts and Rylan Jackson.

Jamie Foxx was almost out of action

Back in Action very nearly didn’t happen. In April 2023, Jamie Foxx was hospitalized for an undisclosed illness that he says left him unable to walk for a time. I wouldn’t wish what went through on my worst enemy because it’s tough when it’s almost over, when you see the tunnel…” Foxx said at a Critics Choice Association event. “I saw the tunnel, I didn’t see the light!” Production briefly halted on Back in Action, but Foxx was able to return to work.

There were other reports that the set of Back in Action were fraught. The Sun claimed Foxx had a “meltdown” and fired four crew members, as well as being scammed out of money and halting production. Diaz has refuted these claims.

What kind of action are we talking about?

Art imitates life in Back in Action, as the plot follows Diaz and Foxx being forced out of retirement. Not from acting, from the CIA. “Years after giving up life as CIA spies to start a family,” the logline reads, “Emily and Matt find themselves dragged back into the world of espionage when their cover is blown.” The comedy was co-written by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) and Brendan O’Brien (Neighbors), with Gordon directing.

Where’s the trailer?

Is this trailer for the movie or a homecoming message for both Diaz and Foxx? “For the first time in a really long time, I felt alive again. I felt like that bitch again,” She monolgues in the beginning of the trailer, as the rest of it cuts to clips of them to kicking ass. The couple tackle land, sea, sky, and inner thigh muscle as they try to protect their family after their cover as spies has been blown. “You know that if I didn’t have superior inner-thigh strength, you would be dead,” Diaz quips to Foxx. He replies, “Your inner thighs saved my life.”

When does Back in Action come to Netflix?

Back in Action comes to Netflix January 17.

Cameron Diaz Returns to Acting for an Annie (2014) Reunion