While independent cinema was largely the domain of unknown faces, 2015 has a host of mainstream Hollywood actors featuring in indie films. While Hollywood Gossip some are attracted to the low-budget guerrilla style of filmmaking and the intimate slice-of-life themes of this genre, other stars like the freedom that smaller films offer them for them to display their acting chops.
Tiny rewards
Upcoming film Cake stars a deglamourised Jennifer Aniston as an LA-based woman who has recently separated from her husband and Anna Kendrick as the woman who haunts her. Indie filmmaker Richard Glatzer's last film Still Alice this year, won Julianne Moore an Oscar for her portrayal of a professor with early-onset Alzheimer's. "Working in the indie space has helped my career longevity. All of my successes sprung from these teeny tiny movies," Moore said in an interview after the awards. Apart from Alec Baldwin, it also features Kristen Stewart, who's making unusual choices after bidding goodbye to the Twilightfranchise.
James Marsden and Kristen Wiig in Welcome To Me and Jennifer Aniston in Cake
Small but meaningful
Small but meaningful
Stewart has lined up a slate of indie films including Crazy Love, Wendy And Lucy as well asClouds Of Sils Maria where she plays French actress Juliette Binoche's daughter. "I am obsessed with ignoring the idea that we're creating products. I really choose every single project I do based on the desire, and based on really just wanting to experience making that story happen," Stewart said about her penchant for independent movies. John Cusack and Paul Dano depict the young and old reclusive Beach Boys musician Brian Wilson in the biopic Love And Mercy.
New ideas
Spike Lee's first crowdfunded film Da Sweet Blood of Jesus is a reinterpretation of Bill Gunn's horror cult film Ganja And Hess and stars Williams of Children Of God fame. The director dipped into the global crowdfunding craze to raise funds for the project. Naomi Watts and Ben Stiller are essaying a troubled couple in While We're Young. Stiller may be famous as a funnyman to mainstream audiences, but the indie film circuit knows he is a perfectly capable thespian in any genre. His earlier outings in the indie genre were The Royal Tenenbaums and Your Friends And Neighbors.
Alec Baldwin and Julianne Moore in Still Alice and Stephen Tyrone Williams and Zaraah Abrahams in Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
Spontaneous projects
After The Skeleton Twins last year, Kristen Wiig — of Bridesmaids fame — will now play a girl who starts her own talk show in another indie movie, Welcome To Me. British actor David Oyelowo of Selma fame, is set to co-star with Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o in the indie film version of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's novel Americanah and later this year, in Five Nights In Maine.
Christian Bale nad Natalie Portman in Knight Of Cups
Meanwhile, Batman star Christian Bale appears alongside Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett in Terrence Malick's indie project Knight Of Cups. Bale told a website after the premiere, "I prefer being a part of shorter movies... it sort of feels like guerrilla filmmaking. Free, because you don't have hundreds of crew all staring with the expectations. You don't feel like it's a massive village that's being created. I love the impulsiveness and the spontaneity you get much more with smaller films."
No comments:
Post a Comment