Punk-rocker Elgin James has impressively filled out the cast for his directorial debut, the semi-biographical “Goodnight Moon,” an expansion of his 2007 short starring Bonnie Muirhead and Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz.
Joining leads Juno Temple (whose Australian accent in “Greenberg” was shockingly good) and AnnaSophia Robb will now be the likes Leslie Mann, Kate Bosworth, Kyle Gallner and Chris Coy in the story of two young girls who find themselves in trouble after running away to L.A. Mann and Bosworth will portray Temple’s mother and sister respectively; while Gallner and Coy will play a skater and a street kid, both of whom use the girls in a scam goes that awry.
The story will evidently draw from James own upbringing which saw him grow up in orphanages, foster homes and on the streets before discovering punk music and going on to form the multi-racial group FSU aimed to fight the rise of Neo-Nazism and drug dealers (whom he reportedly robbed and donated to straight-edge causes) in Boston. He recently participated in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab program which has seen the likes Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky and Paul Thomas Anderson pass through before him.
Lensing on “Goodnight Moon” should begin soon — possibly after Temple’s commitments with “Jack & Diane” in May — and, with the casting of Mann and Bosworth, we assume this also means the extortion charges by the FBI against the director are a thing of the past.