After bursting onto the scene with "Half Nelson," which featured a career-making turn by Ryan Gosling, filmmaking duo Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden haven't exactly lived up to those heights, with the criminally underrated "Sugar" flying below the radar, and the lightweight "Kind Of A Funny Story" not quite landing with the force some were expecting. The filmmakers, however, have a new, exciting project in the works.
Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to star in "Mississippi Grind," which will tell the story of a down-on-his-luck gambler facing crushing debt, who teams up with Gyllenhaal's character, a gambling addict, in an attempt to change his luck. The two then set off on a road trip through the South with visions of winning back what has been lost. Sounds like a hugely promising gambling/road trip/buddy film, with the more senior lead described as a "plum role" for a 40-something actor.
Fleck and Boden will once again helm from their own original script, with Gyllenhaal certainly being given an opportunity to shine here. Counterpart Gosling was nothing short of great under the pair's direction with his performance in "Half Nelson" culminating in an Oscar nomination and widespread acclaim. "Mississippi Grind" will reteaming Fleck and Boden with their producers on their first film, Jamie Patricof and Lynette Howell (Derek Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine" and "The Place Beyond The Pines"). No word yet on when the low budget film (it will cost under $10 million) will start shooting. [THR]
Great news for the duo and great news for Gyllenhaal. I feel he has wasted his career doing big studio movies, some of them actually bad, over the last years. This movie will give him a good opportunity to shine again as Gosling did in Half Nelson.
Half Nelson is one of my favourite movies ever. I have to rent the duo's other movies.
Grrrreat news. Have liked all of their work so far and glad they're doing an original script. It's Kind of A Funny Story was different (also because they adapted it from a novel) but so was Sugar. That's what I like about Fleck and Boden–they certainly haven't just been trying to repeat the formula of Half Nelson; instead they're boldly telling the stories they want to tell (again, even if IKOAFS was an adaptation, it still had a strong voice to it in terms of pacing, style and atmosphere)