Drake Doremus Says New Film With Guy Pearce & Amy Ryan A “Darker Cousin” To ‘Like Crazy’
The journey to Sundance is difficult as it is, but leaving is even harder as after all the hard work filmmakers put into their efforts, only very few leave Park City with the kind of buzz that Drake Doremus‘ “Like Crazy” has. With a Grand Jury Prize for Doremus and Special Jury Prize for Felicity Jones, the film which also co-stars Anton Yelchin and features Jennifer Lawrence in a small role as well, walked away with a distribution deal with Paramount and a wave of momentum for the director. But sometimes, to make that leap to a bigger stage you have to make some concessions, and in the case of “Like Crazy,” it looks like Doremus had to make some tweaks to the movie in order to make sure its potential wasn’t just limited to those aged 18 and over.
Following the launch of the trailer earlier this week, Doremus chatted with /Film and revealed that the version of “Like Crazy” we’ll see in theaters will be slightly different than what was screened in Utah. “The movie was an R-rated film when we screened it at Sundance and we made some changes to make it PG-13 but very slight changes,” Doremus said. “It’s basically the exact same film. So we made very very minor changes.”
Now before everyone cries wolf, this isn’t like say, editing a key sequence in an Oscar winning movie in order to try and scrape together whatever remaining cash you can out of it. Those who have already seen the movie say it’s mostly language (if anything) that pushes it into R-rated territory and we’re sure Paramount wants this tale of long distance love to find a bigger audience (and box office) than an R-rated cut would deliver. So, if anything, take this as an example of films that continue to get honed after they premiere at Sundance. As you might recall, “Blue Valentine” shaved about 10 minutes from its running time between Utah and hitting theaters almost a year later.
Doremus is already gearing up for his next film, one that will find him working with is writing partner Ben York Jones, re-teaming with Felicity Jones and bringing along Guy Pearce and Amy Ryan as well. Details have been kept slim thus far, only revealing that it centers on love and marriage, but Doremus opened up a little more about how it might relate to his Sundance hit. “It deals a little bit more with infidelity this time. But we’ve been sort of joking that it’s the darker cousin of ‘Like Crazy’ in a way,” he said. “So it’s certainly going to retain some of the tonal values that ‘Like Crazy’ does but it’s a little bit more of a thriller. So it’s a little more of a romantic that’s got some thriller elements to it. That’s kind of an exciting thing for me to try, I’ve never done before and something I’m really interested in exploring.”
And the trials and tribulations of relationships continues to be a theme that piques Doremus’ interest. Earlier this year he was attached to direct, with Ben York Jones to adapt, the sci-fi romance “Through To You” based on the book by Emily Hainsworth and he makes some interesting comparisons in terms of what we can expect. “It’s a book that comes out next year. It’s sort of a ‘Twilight‘ for the ‘Eternal Sunshine‘ generation, is how we describe it as,” Doremus explained. “So it’s somewhere in between there but that’s a bigger movie so we’ll see what happens with that.But I’m definitely excited in being a part of developing the project.”
We’re not exactly sure what that pitch means, but regardless, a new voice is certainly emerging, and it will be one we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on. “Like Crazy” will open on October 28th.