Director Dito Montiel (“A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints,” “Fighting”) has a new film and he’s scored a whale of cast. Shia LaBeouf, Kate Mara and Gary Oldman have all signed on to join his latest, “Man Down.” Written by Adam Simon (“Synapse”), the “psychological thriller” tells the story of a haunted Afghanistan war veteran who attempts to come to terms with his past while searching for his family in a post-apocalyptic America. We’ll assume the war veteran is LaBeouf, but the press release doesn’t specify. Hopefully he and Oldman don’t bump heads too much, but maybe this is a decent sign that “I’m Not Famous Anymore” is tired of the shenanigans and is getting ready to go back to work. The movie is in pre-production now and starts shooting in October.
OK, our man in Telluride didn’t really care for “Wild,” the follow-up to Jean-Marc Vallee’s Oscar-winning “Dallas Buyers Club,” but regardless if you like the filmmaker or not, it’s undeniable that he has a special touch with A-list actors who want to work with him (it probably doesn’t help that the two leads in ‘Dallas’ both won Academy Awards). His next film is shaping up too. It’s called “Demolition” and it already stars the revitalized Jake Gyllenhaal. It was announced today that Naomi Watts has joined the cast. The film is about a young investment banker struggling to understand his emotional unraveling after the tragic death of his wife. Suddenly, a woman he meets in a chance encounter changes his life forever. Principal photography begins next week after TIFF is over. [Deadline]
We’re huge fans of “Reprise” and Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier’s “Oslo, August 31st, so it’s great to hear his English-Language debut is finally getting made. Called “Louder Than Bombs,” a project that Ryan Gosling was circling back in the day, the film begins shooting today in New York. With that announcement comes the arrival of two new cast members Amy Ryan (“Birdman”) and David Strathairn (“Good Night And Good Luck”), who join Gabriel Byrne, Jesse Eisenberg and Isabelle Huppert. That’s quite the steller cast. “Louder Than Bombs” centers around Gene (Byrne) and his two sons (Eisenberg and newcomer Devin McKenzie Druid) three years after the death of Gene’s wife (Huppert), an internationally celebrated photographer. The three men grapple with remarkably contrasting memories of this profoundly influential woman as they try their best to negotiate living without her. Maybe Cannes 2015? Funding for this one dropped out a few years ago, but then it came back to life, so it’s nice to see this one finally come together.