While it was first vaguely described as an “edgy character drama,” some details have arrived on Todd Solondz’s new feature, “Dark Horse,” which will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Ok, those details are slim, but the TIFF website says the film is an intimate dark comedy about a manchild whose desire for a romantic relationship runs smack into reality.
While it boasts a cast that includes Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow and Selma Blair (the latter a veteran of Solondz’s “Storytelling,”) along with Zachary Booth (“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist“) and Donna Murphy (“Spider-Man 2“), the true lead appears to be Jordan Gelber, a relatively-unknown character actor who has appeared on shows like “Boardwalk Empire,” “Law & Order” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit“
He plays a thirtysomething man still living with his parents (Walken and Farrow), who seeks out a relationship with a woman in a similar state of arrested development (Blair) in an attempt to shed his label as the dark horse of the family. Bartha and Booth will play, respectively, the protagonist’s brother and cousin, while Mandvi will be Blair’s ex-boyfriend, and Murphy will be Walken’s secretary. Lots of new images below.
There’s no distributor yet, but perhaps IFC Films who picked up “Life During Wartime” in 2009? Time will tell. According to the TIFF site, the picture is a short 84 minutes, features a score by Michael Hill and was shot by cinematographer Andrij Parekh. Solondz wrote it as well. Our hunch is it won’t be vastly different in tone from ‘Wartime,’ which seemed to kick off a slightly warmer-and-fuzzier take on the director’s caustic and misanthropic view of humankind. 
