Henry Golding Joins The Cast Of Downtown Owl Adaptation, Lily Rabe And Hamish Linklater's Directorial Debut
Lily Rabe hive, our time has come. A film adaptation of Chuck Klosterman's novel "Downtown Owl" has been kicking around Hollywood for over a decade, with Adam Scott's Gettin' Rad Productions optioning the rights to the novel. All of that has changed, however, as Lily Rabe and longtime partner Hamish Linklater are making their co-directorial debuts with the adaptation. The story is set in the fictional town of Owl, North Dakota, following the intrinsically connected lives of three different characters — the elderly Horace, depressed high school backup quarterback Mitch, and Julia, the new English teacher in town. Set in the 1980s, the small town of Owl is somewhat distanced from the current trends and stranglehold of pop culture, allowing their lives to be intimately shaped by their interactions with one another when their lives are all bewildered by a freak blizzard.
"Downtown Owl" is currently filming in Minnesota from a script written by Linklater, and boasts a dynamite cast including Ed Harris, Vanessa Hudgens, Finn Wittrock, Jack Dylan Grazer, August Blanco Rosenstein, as well as Lily Rabe. Today it was announced that star of "Crazy Rich Asians," "A Simple Favor," and "Snake Eyes," Henry Golding, would also be joining the cast. The film was part of the Sundance Institute Creative Producing Summit and Talent Forum and is being produced by Bettina Barrow and Rabe of Kill Claudio Productions, Rebecca Green, and Linklater. Executive producers are Laura Rister, Lee Broda, and Joel Michaely, as well as Tom McLeod as co-executive producer.
Rabe and Linklater's love letter to small towns
Sony Pictures' Stage 6 Films acquired worldwide rights to the film, with the company's Eric Charles and Elizabeth Grave overseeing the project. The news of the project was first broken by Deadline, with both Rabe and Linklater offering a statement about their debut feature directorial venture.
We are so thrilled to have the opportunity, with this phenomenal cast, exquisite crew, and brilliant producing partners, to bring Chuck Klosterman's human, haunting, and hilarious novel to the screen. We both grew up in small towns, towns that we love. The town of Owl, sweet and sour, has felt like home to us from the first read and we are elated to be making this love story about home into a movie.
Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater are both well known for their impressive acting careers with Rabe recently appearing in George Clooney's "The Tender Bar," currently appearing on Showtime's anthology "The First Lady," and soon to be seen in the upcoming HBO limited series, "Love and Death." Linklater recently scarred us all for life as Father Paul in Mike Flanagan's "Midnight Mass," and will soon appear in the Starz limited series about Watergate, "Gaslit." No word yet on an anticipated release date for "Downtown Owl," but we will be sure to keep you updated as more information becomes available.