New Casting For Gus Van Sant’s Next, Which is No Longer Called Restless
Posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 by Russ Fischer
Gus Van Sant’s next film, which was called Restless until recently, has been sounding very interesting. It already stars Mia Wasikowska in a “complex tale of a teenage boy and girl who share a preoccupation with mortality.” The film may not currently have a title (Restless wasn’t the best name for this movie, anyway) but it does have a lot of new cast members, a couple of which bear very familiar names.
THR reports that starring alongside Wasikowska will be Henry Hopper, son of Dennis Hopper. The two of them will play a young couple who, among other things, crash funerals as they try to deal with the death of Hopper’s character’s parents.
Making the film a bit more weird is the spirit of a Japanese kamikaze pilot who visits and/or befriends Hopper’s character. The ghost will be played by Ryo Kase. He’s not a familiar name in the US (you might know him from Letters From Iwo Jima and/or Tokyo!) but he’s a very experienced actor in Japan. And he’s in Takeshi Kitano’s next film, which is good enough for me.
Rounding out the cast are Sissy Spacek’s daughter Schuyler Fisk, playing Wasikowska’s sister, Chin Han, playing a doctor treating the girl, and Jane Adams, playing Hopper’s aunt.
If the major casting is sounding very much like it is staying inside the Hollywood family, remember that the Jason Lew script is in production because his schoolmate Bryce Dallas Howard loved it, and she brought it to her father, which kickstarted development. And then think about the fact that Gus Van Sant is very much not inside the Hollywood family (nor is Kase, obviously) and this could be a good mix of talents.
The Playlist ran a very enthusiastic rundown of the script earlier this week, calling it “peculiar and wistful,” and “comedic, dramatic and melancholic in tone.” It sounds like there’s a lot wrapped up in this, including some existential teen drama, which the filmmaker has been doing very well of late. (Paranoid Park.) Gus Van Sant and Mia Wasikowska were enough to get me interested, and this one is now high on my list for next year.
