'Half Nelson' & 'Sugar' Duo Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden Will Get 'Hate Mail'


Oh man, well this is eerie. Just yesterday we were chatting around The Playlist water color discussing our recent interview with Anthony Mackie in which he discussed what working with Ryan Gosling was like. The pair of course are starring in the current filming “Gangster Squad” but before that, they squared off in Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden‘s remarkable debut film “Half Nelson.” Talking amongst ourselves, we noted how much we really liked their scenes together (particularly the one below) and moreover, how we hoped that we’d soon be hearing of a new project from the directing pair. Well, here we are.

Fleck and Boden are indeed back and according to Variety their next project is going to be “Hate Mail,” and frankly, we couldn’t be more excited. Re-teaming with a handful of previous collaborators on the production end, this new effort is a drama that will revolve around several Manhattanites whose relationships experience a fallout as each of them deal with receiving hate mail. It’s another left turn for the directing pair who followed up their first film with the incredibly underrated baseball movie/immigration story “Sugar” and last year’s uneven psych ward dramedy “It’s Kind Of A Funny Story.”

But when the directing pair don’t quite hit the mark, they are still tackling material and characters unlike any of their contemporaries. We’re glad they are getting their next project mounted soon, with casting to begin shortly for a spring 2012 shoot. We can’t wait to see what they deliver next.