Sarah Polley Spliced To Adrien Brody And Vincenzo Natali

The rumours of Adrien Brody's casting in Splice broke a month or so back, just before my review of the film's script ran, and were received very well across the web - and rightly so, I think. Now we know Sarah Polley is to play his lover, scientific colleague and co-collaborator.

I'm sure most of you are as pleased by this as I am - as well as being very curious to see Polley with a Bride of Frankenstein do. They can't simply decide not to give her the hair as it actually turns out to be far from a simple, cosmetic in-joke or reference.

It's been far, far too long since Natali's had a film in production so it feels good to know shooting on Splice begins in November.

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.

Direct Download Links For Sarah Polley's Away From Her Trailer

In the trailer at least, Away From Her has some pleasantly inky cinematography, deep, sticky shadows that eat up the screen. I'd love to see it projected properly and feel this encroaching blackness - which, according to the law of averages means I'd have to visit at least thirty randomly selected cinemas to have more than a 50% chance of getting my wish.

Polley's great in front of the camera... but unless this trailer lies, she's not so hot behind it. The film they're selling here looks dry, over earnest and stiff, with a tendancy towards phantom-pregnant pauses.

Help yourself to the trailer in hi-res, 1080p, 720p or 480p and judge for yourself.

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.