Is David Lowery having the year of his life or what? Let’s recap, shall we? In January he had his hand in three films in Park City: as the writer of “Pit Stop,” editor on Shane Carruth‘s “Upstream Color,” and writer/director on his own impeccable “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.” And the heat generated from that alone saw Lowery linked to a plethora of projects over the past seven months or so: writing Disney‘s remake of “Pete’s Dragon“; writing and directing “The Old Man And The Gun,” with Robert Redford slated to star and produce; writing and directing former David Fincher project “Torso” and producing Alex Ross Perry‘s upcoming “Listen Up Philip” toplined by Jason Schwartzman and Elisabeth Moss. And it seems that’s not enough to keep him busy.
Lowery is now set to reteam with his ‘Bodies’ star Casey Affleck for the sci-fi “To Be Two.” An adaptation of the short story “To Be Two or Not To Be” by Paul Broks, the story is “set in a world where teleportation exists and people are scanned, the digital self sent to Mars, reconstructed atom by atom, while the original is vaporized. The story then posits the idea of the teleportation machine malfunctioning and not vaporizing the original person.” And thus questions will be raised about the nature of reality and identity, and for the sake of moviemaking, “what happens when the authorities want to erase the original person?” So a smart, brainy sci-fi by these two dudes? Yes, please.
As per usual, Lowery will write and direct, with Affleck executive producing. And here’s some food for thought: the tone of the film is being compared to Rian Johnson‘s “Looper.” [THR]