Shot on black-and-white 16mm film, noted for its abrasive, rapid-fire dialogue style, we’ll fully admit “The Color Wheel,” director Alex Ross Perry‘s screwball-ish black comedy, divided Playlist writers from the rest of the world, even though it was a cause celebre film for indie filmmakers and indie-championing publications (and yet enough of us liked it to include the film’s climax in our Best Movie Scenes & Moments Of 2012). Still, any time an indie filmmaker gets a shot into the big leagues, or at least a chance to work with professional actors and not their friends, it’s always worth keeping an eye on. Hell, look what it did for Joe Swanberg and the Duplass Brothers, with “Drinking Buddies” and “Cyrus” easily being among their best films to date.
And so, Perry has teamed with “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” producers James M. Johnston, Toby Halbrooks and David Lowery, for “Listen Up Philip” nabbing Jason Schwartzman and “Mad Men” and “Top Of The Lake” star Elisabeth Moss to topline. The story will follow a writer (Schwartzman) whose bad decisions affect everyone around him, including his photographer girlfriend Ashley (Moss). Shades of Jonatham Ames? Anyway, the ambitions are high for this even if the premise seems familiar. “As I enter my 10th year in the city – and thus finally become a real New Yorker – I finally feel ready to make an impression on the grand and treasured history of New York movies,” Perry declared.
We’ll see how it all turns out — we certainly dig the leads — as cameras get rolling this fall. [The Wrap]