So, it’s official, acclaimed indie filmmaker Ramin Bahrani has gone Hollywood. The Iranian-American director behind the trio of well-received, low-key efforts “Man Push Cart,” “Chop Shop” and “Goodbye Solo” has put together a pretty WTF cast for his next, still untitled effort. In case you forgot, back this spring the unlikely duo of Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron (really) came aboard. And now, some more random people have rounded out the cast.
Clancy Brown — best known for playing The Kurgan in “Highlander” — Heather Graham and Kim Dickens (“Treme,” “The Blind Side“) have joined Bahrani’s film. And if you thought the cast was odd, the premise is equally (though intriguingly) out there. The story will center on a farmer and seed salesman (Quaid) who plans to expand his business, but is frustrated when his race car driving son (Efron) doesn’t want to follow in his footsteps; Brown plays a rival farmer. While it seems like a seeds and racecars story, Bahrani has always been interested in the complex social issues surrounding his characters and it’s probably a safe bet that his next film will address the shifting and fading landscape of American farming. And while the cast is a bit scattershot, it will be interesting to see if he can coax the same kind of performances out of these name players that he did from the unknown talents of his previous films.
Lensing is currently underway in Illinois, which likely means this will appear on the festival circuit next year. We’re anxious to see the results. [THR]