If American indie cinema has felt a little more comfortable as of late, it perhaps can be attributed to the lack of new Todd Solondz. With the filmmaker’s last work, Weiner-Dog, debuting five years ago, he’s now finally mounting his return and it’s for a project that’s long been in development. Love Child, once set to star Penélope Cruz and Edgar Ramírez, has now found a new cast.
The Lobster duo Rachel Weisz and Colin Farrell will reteam for the project, which finds the director putting his own spin on the Oedipus complex. The story follows 11-year-old Junior, a delusional aspiring Broadway star with an inappropriate obsession with his mother (Weisz). After orchestrating an accident that nearly kills his abusive father, he encourages the handsome man (Farrell) living in the family’s guesthouse to court his mother and become his new dad. But when the two fall in love, Junior becomes so jealous that he is no longer the subject of his mother’s attention that he hatches a plan to frame the man for his father’s murder.
“This is my first movie with a plot and my first movie taking place in Texas. It’s fun and it’s sexy and it’s shaped by the Hollywood movies that made me want to become a filmmaker. I’ve loved Rachel and Colin’s work forever, and am so honored to be able to excite their passion for serious and unexpected work as well,” Solondz tells Deadline.
Meanwhile, Farrell will also soon get to work on his reunion with Martin McDonagh and Brendan Gleeson, after collaborating on In Bruges. First announced right before the pandemic hit, Goss.ie reports that the film, The Banshees of Inisheer, will kick off production on the island of Inis Mór in western Island beginning mid-July. The film follows a pair of lifelong friends who find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship with alarming consequences for both of them.