Improbable, fantastical and romantic, "Ruby Sparks" is the belated follow-up to Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' four-time Oscar-nominated debut, "Little Miss Sunshine." It's been six years since that film — the duo has been stuck in multi-project development hell — and they've returned with a story that's about a novelist struggling with writer's block who finds romance in a most unusual way: by creating a female character he thinks will love him, then actually, somehow, inexplicably willing her into existence.
It sounds Charlie Kaufman-esque, but it's actually written by one of the film's co-leads, Zoe Kazan ("The Exploding Girl," "Meek's Cutoff"). Starring Paul Dano (Zoe's real-life boyfriend), Kazan, plus Antonio Banderas, Annette Bening, Steve Coogan, Elliott Gould, Chris Messina and Deborah Ann Wol, by the look of the trailer "Ruby Sparks" appears both whimsical and romantic and perhaps feel-good in the same manner that endeared "Little Miss Sunshine" so well with both critics and audiences. Official synopsis below.
Calvin (Paul Dano) is a young novelist who achieved phenomenal success early in his career but is now struggling with his writing – as well as his romantic life. Finally, he makes a breakthrough and creates a character named Ruby who inspires him. When Calvin finds Ruby (Zoe Kazan), in the flesh, sitting on his couch about a week later, he is completely flabbergasted that his words have turned into a living, breathing person.
"She's out of his mind" is the clever tag from the poster recently released by Fox Searchlight. This one's on our Most Anticipated Summer 2012 list and it arrives in theaters July 25th.
