Gus Van Sant’s new project “Restless,” is coming along nicely. Australian star-in-the-making Mia Wasikowska (the lead of Tim Burton’s upcoming “Alice In Wonderland”) is in final negotiations to take the lead role in what is being called a dark coming-of-age drama by THR.
Last time it was described as a “contemporary and distinctive take on young love,” so the details seem to be a bit clearer. Though Movieline have the script and they’ve called the film, “the most emo love story to ever don black lipstick and listen to The Smiths.”
Protagonist Enoch Brae is a 17-year-old funeral crasher, drawn to attending strangers’ memorials after losing both his parents. At one of them, he meets the beautiful, tomboyish Annabel Cotton (Wasikowska), a 16-year-old with Six Months to Live. Love then blooms among the gravestones as “the moon looks on knowingly and sympathetically.”
Wasikowska is all of 19 years of age, but has been pretty much fantastic in everything she’s been (most recently she was quite good in “That Evening Sun”). Don’t be surprised if she has an Oscar under her belt by the time she’s 30 and several nominations by the time she reaches 25. Or at least if all goes well and according to plan.
A male lead also needs to be cast. Are we looking at a Robert Pattinson-type figure and then maybe a “Romeo & Juliet”/ “Twilight”-like following perhaps?
“Restless” is an interesting project if only because it seems to show Van Sant’s proclivities for the “one for them, one for us” mentality that many indie directors ascribe to. It’s also a project that Van Sant didn’t develop and was brought onboard by the producers Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Bryce Dallas Howard.
After four experimental indies in a role that all played with shifting and overlapping temporal aesthetics — “Gerry,” “Elephant,” “Last Days” and “Paranoid Park” — and then going more mainstream with “Milk,” it appears the Portland filmmaker, known for disparate films like “Drugstore Cowboy,” and “Goodwill Hunting,” will continue on his path of eclectic choices and a non-discriminating view of the indie or mainstream worlds.
The film is budgeted at $15 million, which is $5 million less than “Milk,” so we should probably still expect a mid-sized mini-major effort. This is Focus Features ballpark money, but Columbia is actually the studio behind this one.