Production Begins on Gus Van Sant’s Untitled Project

Filed Under Celebs, Gay Entertainment, Gay Film, Gossip | November 16th, 2009 

PORTLAND, Ore., (PRNewswire) — Director Gus Van Sant began lensing over the weekend on location in Portland, Oregon on an untitled project starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper.

Director Gus Van Sant (Photo: Mai Le [cc])
Director Gus Van Sant (Photo: Mai Le [cc])

The film’s screenplay was written by first-timer Jason Lew, based upon his original stage play “Of Winter and Water Birds.” The film is produced by Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Bryce Dallas Howard and Gus Van Sant. The supporting cast includes Ryo Kase, Schuyler Fisk, Jane Adams, Chin Han and Lusia Strus.

Bryce Dallas Howard, a producer of the film, said, “This film is a quietly epic coming of age story. It captures the profoundly defining turning point of a young person’s life with stark realism, irreverent humor, and intense emotion. I think that Gus was drawn to this story because he has an uncanny ability to convey the complexities of youth and outsiders. For this is, above all else, the journey of an outsider.”

Van Sant has once again surrounded himself with some of the top talent in the business. Longtime collaborator Harris Savides (Milk) is the director of photography. Anne Ross (Lost in Translation) is the production designer on the film and Academy Award® nominees Elliot Graham (Milk) and Danny Glicker (Milk) have joined the film as editor and the costume designer respectively.

Audiences and critics alike have taken note of Gus Van Sant’s movies since he made his feature film directorial debut in 1985 with Mala Noche, which won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Independent/Experimental Film.

Van Sant has twice been nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Oscar® for Best Director: for his work on Good Will Hunting, which received nine total nominations and won for Best Original Screenplay, and for his most recent film, Milk, which received eight total nominations and won for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.

Van Sant’s body of work also includes Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, To Die For, Psycho, Finding Forrester, Gerry, Elephant (which won both the Palme d’Or and the Best Director award at the 2003 Cannes International Film Festival), Last Days, and Paranoid Park (which earned the 60th Anniversary Prize at the 2007 Cannes International Film Festival).

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Van Sant earned a B.A. at the Rhode Island School of Design before moving to Hollywood. Early in his career, he spent two years in New York creating commercials for Madison Avenue. Eventually he settled in Portland, Oregon, where in addition to directing and producing, he pursued his other talents — painting, photography, and writing.

Source: Imagine Entertainment