With this year’s “Life During Wartime” proving to be not only a worthy follow-up to its predecessor 1998’s “Happiness,” but also director Todd Solondz’s best film since then, we were glad to hear a few weeks back that the not-exactly prolific helmer was moving forward on another project. “Dark Horse,” described as an ‘edgy character drama,’ was first revealed when we talked to Solondz earlier in the year, and recently, while no details on the plot leaked out, Aasif Mandvi (“The Daily Show”), Justin Bartha (“The Hangover”) and theater veteran Jordan Gelber were rumored to be appearing in some form.
Now, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed all of the above, and has not only announced further casting on the project, but also the first details on the plot. Gelber, Mandvi and Bartha are being joined by Christopher Walken, Mia Farrow and Selma Blair (the latter a veteran of Solondz’s “Storytelling,”) along with Zachary Booth (“Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”) and Donna Murphy (“Spider-Man 2”).
Gelber will take the lead role, a thirtysomething man still living with his parents (Walken and Farrow), who seeks out a relationship with a woman in a similar state of arrested development (Blair) in an attempt to shed his label as the dark horse of the family. Bartha and Booth will play, respectively, the protagonist’s brother and cousin, while Mandvi will be Blair’s ex-boyfriend, and Murphy will be Walken’s secretary.
It’s a typically eclectic Solondz cast, but a promising one (how is it that Walken and the director have never worked together before? They seem like a perfect match…). It certainly seems to match Solondz’s promise when we spoke to him earlier in the year that “It’s not designed to be controversial. There’s no rape,there’s no child molestation, there’s no masturbation, and then I thought ‘Oh my god, why didn’t I think of this years ago?’ Stories take on an unpredictable life.”
It certainly seems to have the potential to have more crossover appeal than anything in Solondz’s career, but we can’t imagine he’ll water down his sensibilities too far. Filming kicked off in New York this week, so we guess we’ll see the fruits of the labor around film festival season next fall.
