We’re all still reeling from the passing of Anton Yelchin, a young actor who, at the age of 27, had already had a career of over a decade full of surprising choices and fiercely committed performances, from his breakout in “Alpha Dog” and “Charlie Bartlett,” to blockbuster roles in “Star Trek” and “Terminator,” to his lead role in one of the best movies of the year, “Green Room.”
His tragic death in a freak accident Sunday has robbed us of more of those, and, it has now emerged, of seeing what sort of filmmaker he would have been. Yelchin’s reputation was that of a real cinephile, and Indiewire have revealed in an interview with producers Ketih Kjarval and Gary Schultz that Yelchin was just three weeks away from shooting on his directorial debut when he passed away.
Yelchin’s film, which he also wrote, was called “Travis,” and is described as a “voyeuristic crime thriller… neo-noir, very urgent in morality, like a Dardennes Brothers film” by Kjarval, who worked with Yelchin on “Rudderless” and “The Driftless Area.” The film would have focused on an actor and photographer who witness a murder after he follows a girl to her apartment, with his “Green Room” co-star Callum Turner set to play the lead.
Other former collaborators of the actor were also on board, with Milla Jovovich and another “Green Room” actor, Alia Shawkat, also signed on, while Marilyn Manson was going to write the score, and Alex Ross Perry collaborator Sean Price Williams set to shoot the film. “The patient exploration of the moments where we are the most human is what Anton was interested in with this film. It was a deeply personal film and I’m convinced it would have been one of many films he directed,” said Kjarval.
Not every actor transitions successfully into directing, but by all accounts Yelchin had a good chance at becoming one of them — producer Gary Schultz tells Indiewire, “The thing that he loved most was film and cinema.” Sadly, we’ll never know how the film would have turned out, one of the many bits of heartbreak that come with his passing. Head over to Indiewire for more.