Also Talks About His Role In Upcoming Paul Dano Drama ‘For Ellen’
David Gordon Green tends to have his hands in a number of projects at any given time, but naturally, some stall out, get left behind or put aside. Back in 2008, just as “Pineapple Express” was gearing up to hit theaters and do some boffo box office, Green and Danny McBride pulled out an old script from their drawer, dusted it off, and set it up at Universal. Titled “Mr. Machine,” McBride described the project as “our take on those old Amblin films — it follows around these science fair geeks that construct this robot that gets a life of its own. It’s like… I don’t know, a ‘Short Circuit‘ zombie movie.” Well, it’s now a few years later and there has been little word since, so we asked Jon Heder — who is currently doing press to drum up support for the animated short he’s developing via Kickstarter) — about the status of the picture that is being produced under his Greasy Entertainment shingle.
“Right now it’s one of those projects that’s on hold. Whenever we talk with the other guys about it [we’re always saying] ‘Yeah, we need to do this one of these days,’ Heder said but he again reiterated, “Right now, it’s just kind of on hold.” Bummer.
And while Heder was last seen on screen in “When In Rome” over a year ago, the actor does have a film in the can that’s currently being finished up before heading out in the world and it may surprise you to learn that it’s a drama, So Yong Kim‘s “For Ellen,” starring Paul Dano, Margarita Levieva, Dakota Johnson and Jena Malone. The film wrapped last year (you can check out a first look image here) and there hasn’t been much word on it since, so we asked Heder what was happening with the movie.
“I keep in contact with the director and producer couple — Brad [Rust Gray] and So Yong Kim,” Heder explained. “They’re still working on it, they got a grant and are living up in Germany right now. They’re doing all the post-[production] stuff for it now while they’re working on some other projects. So I think they’re just kind of going at their own pace, finishing [up the film]. I know that they plan on definitely putting it on the indie circuit.”
“I play a lawyer who got his degree online,” Heder revealed about his character. “It takes place in this small town in New York, right on the Canadian border. Paul Dano who plays the lead, it’s about him and his estranged daughter, and trying to reconnect with her. So he goes to this small town to track her down and while he’s there he runs into complications legally with the mother of his child. So he gets the help of this local, young lawyer who really doesn’t have any experience at all. It’s a nice little piece.”
While “Mr. Machine” will have to wait, we’ll get plenty of McBride/Green in the upcoming “Your Highness” and the duo also have the HBO comedy “Eastbound & Down” (on which Green is a consulting producer), though as Variety reports the third season may be its last. As for Heder, he’s got the animated short “Drained” that he’s looking to get off the ground and will be providing the voice to the forthcoming “Napolean Dynamite” animated series.
