In 2009, 25-year-old wunderkind Lee Toland Krieger directed “The Vicious Kind,” a picture we called an “exceptional family drama” (here’s the trailer).
It received a small, low-key release last December, but the picture, which featured an excellent leading (and dramatic) turn from Adam Scott, is definitely something people should catch up with on their Netflix account. The film also starred Brittany Snow, Alex Frost (“Elephant”), J.K. Simmons (“Juno,” several Coen Brothers films) and received two indie Spirit Awards nominations last year, including one for Krieger’s screenplay and Scott’s nuanced performance.
The kid’s clearly got talent and according to THR, he has a new directorial effort on the way, an adaptation of Tim Tharp‘s coming-of-age novel, “The Spectacular Now.” Here’s the synopsis:
SUTTER KEELY. HE’S the guy you want at your party. He’ll get everyone dancing. He’ll get everyone in your parents’ pool. Okay, so he’s not exactly a shining academic star. He has no plans for college and will probably end up folding men’s shirts for a living. But there are plenty of ladies in town, and with the help of Dean Martin and Seagram’s V.O., life’s pretty fabuloso, actually.
Until the morning he wakes up on a random front lawn, and he meets Aimee. Aimee’s clueless. Aimee is a social disaster. Aimee needs help, and it’s up to the Sutterman to show Aimee a splendiferous time and then let her go forth and prosper. But Aimee’s not like other girls, and before long he’s in way over his head. For the first time in his life, he has the power to make a difference in someone else’s life—or ruin it forever.
Marc Webb was originally supposed to direct for Fox Searchlight, which would have been a “500 Days of Summer” reunion (‘500 Days’ co-writer Scott Neustadter was also supposed to write it with Webb), but he obviously moved on to Sony’s “Spider-Man.” The project is now an indie proper and Searchlight is not involved. Neustadter and Webb are exec producers and the original aim was evidently an R-rated teen comedy. No cast has been set yet.