For an actor, stepping behind the camera can be a vulnerable enterprise, and that weight of expectation to deliver only increases if they’re taking on a literary work to adapt. John Krasinski gave it a whirl with David Foster Wallace, James Franco continues to chase the works of big authors to bring to the arthouse, and now Paul Dano is taking on one of America’s finest writers for his first directorial effort.
Variety reports that Dano will helm an adaptation of Richard Ford‘s “Wildlife.” The actor co-wrote the script with his partner Zoe Kazan, who will also executive produce the film, with Oren Moverman (“Love & Mercy“) among the producers. However, neither Dano or Kazan are expected to star in the film about a teenager dealing with his parents’ dissolving relationship. Here’s the book synopsis:
When Joe Brinson was sixteen, his father moved the family to Great Falls, Montana, the setting for this harrowing, transfixing novel by the acclaimed author of Rock Springs. Filled with an abiding sense of love and family, and of the forces that test them to the breaking point, Wildlife is a book whose spare poetry and expansive vision established it as an American classic.
No word yet on when production will begin, but certainly, having spent time on sets of filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be Blood“), Denis Villeneuve (“Prisoners“), Rian Johnson (“Looper“), Kelly Reichardt (“Meek’s Cutoff“), Ang Lee (“Taking Woodstock“), Steve McQueen (“12 Years A Slave“), Paolo Sorrentino (“Youth“), and currently Bong Joon-Ho (“Okja“) is about as good a film school as anyone could get. And we’re pretty excited to see what Dano will be doing with this one.