The upcoming indie drama, Stars, features two people that I think don't get nearly as much attention as they deserve. For one, the film is directed by Derrick Borte(check out my interview with him here) who helmed The Joneses a couple of years ago, one of the most unique films of the year about a team of professional sales people posing as an upper class family to sell merchandise to their neighbors. The other is Vinessa Shaw, who stood amongst Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow in Two Lovers and outshined them both. Shaw was most recently seen in Puncture, the drug addiction drama starring Chris Evans, which I'm hoping we get a screener of this week(doubtful). Her director on that film, Mark Kassen, must have gotten a kick out of working with her, as he's taken on the Stars lead.
Kassen has been splitting time between acting and filmmaking over the course of his career, with Puncture being his biggest film yet, which he co-directed alongside his brother, Adam. Based on a script by Jim Janosky(Alex and Ro), the story centers on a man who decides to commit suicide on his birthday, but events en route to his demise begin to change his outlook. Kindof sounds like a poorman's version of A Single Man, but expect I that Borte will help spin it in a different direction.
Kathryn Hahn(Our Idiot Brother), Tom Bower(The Killer Inside Me), and indie stalwart Illeana Douglas(Ghost World) make up the rest of the cast. Production is already underway in New Mexico, so hopefully we'll see this some time in 2012. [Variety]
