Posted on Thursday, May 12th, 2011 by Angie Han
Funny folks Jeff Garlin and Mary Lynn Rajskub have signed on for Safety Not Guaranteed, which will also star Kristen Bell, Aubrey Plaza (Parks & Recreation), Lynn Shelton (Humpday), Jenica Bergere (Rat Race), Jake Johnson (No Strings Attached), Mark Duplass, and newcomer Karan Soni. The comedy centers around “three magazine employees sent to investigate a classified ad from a man seeking a partner for time travel” and is based on an actual ad that was once featured on the Jay Leno Show.
Safety Not Guaranteed will be the first feature by Colin Trevorrow, who is directing from Derek Connolly‘s original screenplay. Big Beach Films (Little Miss Sunshine) and Duplass Brothers Productions (The Puffy Chair) are producing, which should probably give you some hint as to what kind of humor and general vibe we can expect. The film is currently shooting in Seattle. [The Hollywood Reporter]
After the jump, Hilary Swank considers co-starring with Jeremy Renner and a Silence of the Lambs parody musical hits Off Broadway.
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Let’s hear it for film as the people’s medium! Katie Aselton, who made The Freebie, is directing and starring in a thriller called Black Rock, written by her husband, Mark Duplass (Baghead, Cyrus). The film is about “what happens when three childhood friends meet for a weekend getaway on an isolated island and discover that they have company.” The cast is pretty much set, and also includes Lake Bell, Kate Bosworth, Jay Paulson, Anslem Richardson and Will Bouvier. But this isn’t a big-budget deal; as the involvement of Mark Duplass would suggest, it’s a pretty small film that comes from a personal space. And it is looking for audience help to take the final step to creation. Read More »
Briefly: Add one more to the increasingly intriguing cast of Alex Kurtzman‘s directorial debut Welcome to People. Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks lead the cast in a story where “a young man (Pine) is directed by his father’s will to deliver $150,000 to a sister (Banks) he didn’t know he had.” That’s actually more detail than we’d previously known, and it still isn’t a lot. Now actor/writer/director Mark Duplass will play a neighbor who is interested in Elizabeth Banks’ character. Olivia Wilde and Michelle Pfeiffer are in the cast as well.
Alex Kurtzman has made a career out of big budget, high-concept stuff so far, but when I spoke to his co-writer Roberto Orci on the set of Cowboys & Aliens (which they wrote and produced) Mr. Orci said they were looking to do something a bit different when one or the other segued into directing. This picture was no doubt already in the works, but I’m glad to see the pair (who both wrote this script along with Jody Lambert) making good on their intent to develop their own cinematic vocabulary. [Variety]
Though he’s been announced as attached to a few projects over the past couple years, Lawrence Kasdan hasn’t written or directed a produced film since Dreamcatcher in 2003. (He has done script work, like the polish on the script for the action version of Paradise Lost that Alex Proyas just signed to direct.)
But now Kasdan will direct Darling Companion from a script he wrote with Meg Kasdan, and he’s just added Mark Duplass, Dianne Wiest and Sam Shepard to the cast. Read More »
Lots of cool film-related stuff happens in Boston, Massachusetts and not that many people are here to document it, preserve it and spread the word about it. Special screenings, Q&As, panel discussions — we have them all, and frequently too. /Film Boston aims to be a bi-weekly column that will bring you audio and video content from film-related events around the Boston area. If you don’t live in Boston, I hope that this column will give you a window into some of the cool stuff that happens here regularly. If you do live here, hopefully you’ll come here to get the heads-up on what’s been going on, and what is to come. As always, every edition of /Film Boston is available at http://www.slashfilm.com/boston.
After the break, a hilarious interview with Jay and Mark Duplass, the directors of Cyrus (at least, it was hilarious for us). Plus, your chance to get free tickets to a screening of Cyrus this Wednesday at the Boston Commons AMC at 7 PM.
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We’ve been writing about Cyrus, the new film from the Duplass Brothers, for a while — it was announced last year, shot quickly and is now at Sundance. And until about halfway through this trailer I’d completely forgotten that Jonah Hill was in the film. Then, when he shows up, after just a couple of lines I was floored. Hill looks great in this. Granted, he’s got impressive actors to play against (John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei) but this might be the film that changes how he’s perceived. Check it out and see if you agree. Read More »
After watching The Duplass Brothers‘ The Puffy Chair at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival I remember telling a friend “this is what real independent filmmaking is all about.” The film helped spark an indie film movement called mumblecore, and the brothers have since gone a bit more mainstream, working within the Hollywood system (kinda, sorta… this film for instance features an “upgraded” cast). They return to Sundance with their latest film Cyrus, which will screen in the Premieres category. The film is a comedy about a recently divorced guy meets the woman of his dreams. But then he meets her son who is, well… interesting.
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Jonah Hill evidently really digs the movies by Mumblecore auteurs Jay and Mark Duplass. Their film The Puffy Chair, about two brothers on a road trip to pick up a replica of an odd family heirloom, is one of his favorites. So the three did a movie together, and according to MTV the project just finished a six-week LA shoot. In the untitled film (formerly called Safety Men) Hill is the son of Marisa Tomei, who has just begun a relationship with John C. Reilly. Read More »
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