Kirsten Dunst has added yet another intriguing project to her growing slate of films. The actress has joined Kristen Stewart, Sam Riley & Garret Hedlund in Walter Salles’ adaptation of the beat generation classic “On The Road.”
The project, which has spent years in development and even spawned a Salles’ directed documentary about his journey to bring the book to the big screen, “In Search Of On The Road” has had a revolving door of talent at various points including Matthew McConaughey, Russell Crowe, Brendan Fraser, Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd. However, with a cast in place and financing secured, Salles is now ready to bring his vision to the big screen.
As we reported recently, Focus Features are off this project and now French production banner MK2 has the rights and will produce in conjunction with Film 4 in the U.K. and Videofilmes in Brazil. No word if it will shoot in black and white as Salles originally suggested it must. EW says the film will be shot in New Orleans and in Montreal with Variety adding the production will start lensing in August. The film has a script from “The Motorcycle Diaries” scribe Jose Rivera who based it off the recently published, unedited scroll version of the book.
This marks a particularly busy year for Dunst. She is currently wrapping the sci-fi romance “Upside Down” with Jim Sturgess, and is set to star in Lars Von Trier’s psychological disaster flick “Melancholia.” We would guess that Dunst’s work on that film, previously announced to have a lengthy shoot from July to September, will be completed first so she can transition over to Salles’ film in August. Either way, this is some of the best work Dunst has been attached to in years and we’re glad to see her stepping out of the “Spiderman” pigeonhole with some bold choices. – Kevin Jagernauth