Right now, Adam Driver is known really only to the viewers of HBO’s “Girls” and those who’ve been impressed by his appearances in critically acclaimed fare like “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “While We’re Young.” But that’s about to change, with the young actor playing the villainous, still-mysterious Kylo Ren in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
It’s the start of a big 2016 for the actor, who’s also lined up roles in Jeff Nichols’ “Midnight Special” and Martin Scorsese’s “Silence,” and an interview in the latest issue of Empire Magazine (not yet online, but get the new issue here) reveals that the star has work with another beloved auteur lined up: Before he set out on promo duties for J.J. Abrams’ mega-blockbuster, “he finished work on Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Paterson.’”
This isn’t quite the first we’ve heard about the project: Jarmusch told us last year that he’d written a new movie “set in the present in Paterson, New Jersey… I don’t know if it’s any more of a comedy than any other film I’ve made, but it definitely has some funny stuff in it.” And he told the New York Times that the film was about a “bus driver and poet.”
But it’s the first news of the title, or any casting details, though some set photos from elsewhere in the web confirm that Driver was on set in what we assume is the lead role. Driver and Jarmusch seem like perfect fits for each other: knowing the filmmaker’s track record, we assume this is heading for Cannes, though it’s unclear if this is part of the deal with Amazon that the filmmaker signed.
In other Star Wars-related news from Empire, the magazine asked the emperor of the cinematic universe, Kathleen Kennedy, about the Phil Lord and Chris Miller-directed young Han Solo movie set for 2018, and the producer says that the film “moves closer to the Western genre,” which is certainly intriguing. She also confirms reports that “there are a couple of famous Stormtroopers” in the movie, though won’t confirm if rumors of Daniel Craig or Benedict Cumberbatch donning helmets are correct.
Finally, Harrison Ford has, according to an appearance on "Good Morning America" (via EW) this morning, seen ‘The Force Awakens.’ And, though he’s probably contractually obligated to, he loves it, saying, “It was great. It’s a wonderful movie, it’s got great production values. It’s a real big movie and I was delighted to see it.” The rest of us will have the chance on December 18th.