Meet Mr. Nobody

Culture Cafe have the exclusive first look at a few pieces of production artwork and a synopsis for Jaco van Dormael's Mr. Nobody. Here's the beginning of their plot outline:

The present day, more or less. Nemo (Jared Leto) is 35, an ordinary man, married to Elise (Sarah Polley). with three children. But life's tuming strange : billboards flash messages addressed only to him; he passes strangers with his face on the streets; behind the façade of a half-constructed building, he sees helicopters lifting enormous blocks of the ocean...

Nemo wakes to find himself trapped in his car, drowning. He wakes and is shot by an unknown assassin. He wakes again... by a swimmmg pool in the grounds of an opulent mansion. With a new wife and new children.

Again the Gilliam comparison presents itself, as well, perhaps, as Phillip K. Dick and Charlie Kaufmann. And Fellini. And, at a push, Vincenzo Natali. And some would say Alex Proyas.

Well... anyway, van Dormael is his own man, and he's very good. In his own right. And, Leto aside, I'm having very few doubts about this one.

Mr. Nobody

Jaco van Dormael's debut film Toto the Hero was, and still is, a favourite of mine; his Downs Syndrome love-story follow up The Eighth Day disappointed, perhaps, but it was still pretty strong indeed. Now, over ten years later, van Dormael is readying his third feature film and it's going to be his first made in English (perhaps unsurprisingly in view of the film's reported $39 million budget).

I read that Mr. Nobody is inspired by chaos theory and the so-called Butterfly Effect - though not The Butterfly Effect, I would hope. Not much is yet known about the lead character (perhaps also unsuprisingl in view of the film's title) but according to Variety, he is 35 years old and has four women in his life (A wife? A mistress? A mother? A sister? A woman who comes round to water his plants?) One of these women has been cast, and she's to be played by Sarah Polley. No other actors have been announced as yet.

"Some of" the film takes place in Canada. No idea where "the rest of" the film is set, but most of the 25 week shoot is to take place in Belgium, van Dormael's home and, if you ask me, the strangest, most surprising place on Earth.

If you haven't seen van Dormael's previous films, add them to your Netflix or Lovefilm queue now.