The reunion of “Juno” BFFs Ellen Page and Olivia Thirlby looks like it’ll have to wait, with Page evidently replaced by Alison Pill on Bradley Rust Gray’s “Jack & Diane.”
The film will now star Thirlby and Pill (Edgar Wright’s upcoming “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World”) as two lesbian teenagers in a whirlwind romance who face the upcoming prospect of one’s imminent departure and potential lycanthropic transformation. In a statement on the official site, director Rust Gray clarifies his intentions with the film.
“My focus in making ‘Jack & Diane’ is to carefully examine what happens when two young people fall in love for the first time. I want to show this love by looking at the characters,” the director writes. “Diane is quiet and innocent with an inner raging passion. Jack is a tough skinned girl who’s hiding a fragile heart. The collision of these distinct personalities creates a vulnerable energy.”
“When Diane first discovers love she is desperate to find out if her feelings are being returned. Only she can’t find the words to explain how she feels. Her head gets fuzzy, she gets scared, she panics, and she transforms into a horrifically violent creature. This creature, though grotesque, becomes Diane’s way of saying, ‘I love you so much I want to eat you and put you inside me forever.'” Funny how Rust Gray’s description starts off like any generic romance novel before taking a monstrous turn.
Rust Gray further explains that the film will feature “dreamlike and often violent imagery,” “unusual transformations” and a “unique and visceral point-of-view” which leads us to believe the lycanthropic transformations may simply be an analogy and only apart of surreal sequences.
No word on why things didn’t work out with Page or when shooting begins, though Rust Gray was noted to be “busy” with it at the moment. [Soandbrad via /Film]