South Korea-born, LA-raised filmmaker So Yong Kim is one of the more exciting indie directors on her way up at present — we named her as one to watch a few months back, after her haunting, compassionate films “In Between Days” and “Treeless Mountain.” She looks set to move up to the next level by teaming with “There Will Be Blood” star Paul Dano on the indie drama “For Ellen.”
The film, which starts shooting in upstate New York next month, follows a musician in a struggling indie band who returns home to a Midwestern town to sign his divorce papers, only to discover that he’s not ready to give up custody of his daughter. Variety says that Kim “will be directing from his screenplay,” suggesting either that Dano’s written the script, or, more likely, considering he’s only joined the project recently, that Variety doesn’t realize that Kim is a woman. And they wonder why the trades are dying…
The project will be produced by Jen Gatien (the Jesse Eisenberg-starrer “Holy Rollers,” which premieres at Sundance in a few weeks) and Bradley Rust Gray, Kim’s husband. The director’s known for working with non-actors, and she looks to continue that with the casting of Jon Heder in a supporting role – the “Napoleon Dynamite” star staving off his inevitable future on VH1 celebrity shows just a little longer.
Dano’s a fine actor, and has a extraordinarily smart taste in projects, for the most part, so teaming with a rising indie auteur like Kim is an exciting prospect, even if it sounds like he may be a little young for the part. With shooting imminent, it’s distinctly possible that the film’ll be ready in time for the festival scene, so we’ll be keeping an eye on this for a while.
