Alright, Gus Van Sant’s “Restless” has now become an untitled project. We’ll see how long that lasts. Remember when Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg” became untitled and now all of a sudden Focus Films is calling it by its original title?
Don’t count it out yet. Meanwhile, the adolescent teen drama/ love story — which as we noted might be a strange, but good project for Van Sant as it’s also a bit of a dark comedy and features a weird ghost — that stars Mia Wasikowska, has finalized it’s casting which is good, because it starts filming today.
Van Sant known for working with a lot of unknowns or untrained actors seems to have gone this route again. Dennis Hopper’s son, Henry Hopper will play the emo-like, angsty male lead suffering from the loss of his parents opposite Wasikowska and its his first starring role. Sissy Spacek’s daughter Schuyler Fisk will play Waskowsk’s older, protective sister and the Japanese kamikaze-pilot ghost who is the male lead’s best friend (no we’re not kidding) will be played by young Japanese actor Ryo Kase. Malaysian actor Chin Han (had a small role in “The Dark Knight” plays a doctor and Jane Adams plays Hopper’s underappreciated aunt.
As we noted, this is a bit of an left turn for Gus Van Sant and could be his most unique film in a long time. “Restless,” sorry, the untitled project (for now) was written by Jason Lew, one of Bryce Dallas Howard’s (one of the producers) film school friends and was based on one of his plays. It feels a bit emo-teen love story (maybe superficially “Twilight”-esque, minus the vampires and retardation), a bit “Harold & Maude” (the lovebirds crash funerals together) and “Love Story” (it’s a bit tragic).
But Van Sant obviously is attuned to teenage sensibilities. “I think that Gus was drawn to this story because he has an uncanny ability to convey the complexities of youth and outsiders, and this is, above all else, the journey of an outsider,” Dallas Howard told THR.
Should be an interesting project. We thought it was a very unique script. No word on who is lensing it yet, but we’re hoping “Paranoid Park” DOP Christopher Doyle comes back.