For her last effort, the uncompromising western “Meek’s Cutoff,” the growing cachet of indie filmmaker Kelly Reichardt allowed the director to cast some bigger names than she had worked with in the past, nabbing Bruce Greenwood, Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano to pad out the ensemble. And the experience seems to have been a positive one for Paul Dano, as reps for the actor have confirmed with The Playlist that he is reteaming with Reichardt for the director’s next effort, the eco-terrorist film “Night Moves.”
The project was first revealed last week when Peter Sarsgaard confirmed he was also taking a role in the film. The picture is certainly a gear change for Reichardt, as the story will will center on three environmentalists (Sarsgaard, Dano and one unannounced actress) who are intent on blowing up a dam. Update: “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” star Rooney Mara has been approached about the third female role, but there are many scheduling factors involved and she is not confirmed as of this time.
“I saw a documentary called ‘If A Tree Falls’ in which a group of environmentalists in Portland [are] trying to save centuries-old trees and the police act with such brutality that these youths ultimately decide to do more than protect a tree,” Sarsgaard said last week, going on to explain some of the motivations of his character. “So [they] take action. Thus, step by step, I can understand how my character gets to the point of wanting to blow up a dam. I never want to do this, but I can understand how someone can want to do that. We have a gun pointed to our planet. We see that the demonstrations are not working because they are being tackled with pepper [spray]…so you get the radical movement. I can understand that.”
No word yet on a production start date, but this one is certainly shaping up quite nicely. Reichardt’s longtime collaborators, producers Neil Kopp and Anish Savjani, are once again behind the film via their Film Science shingle.