Patrick Wilson is a perplexing fellow. He broke out with an Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated performance in Angels in America, and he followed that up with The fucking Alamo and The Phantom of the fucking Opera. Then he came back with Hard Candy and Little Children, but he muddied that by associating with Running with fucking Scissors (in which he had a tiny part), before disappearing in 2007 with the direct-to-DVD Brothers Three, Edward Burns’ direct-to-iTunes Purple Violets and the very lame Evening (sorry, Lajos).
His upcoming slate looked like it could be better, with Lakeview Terrace, which is Neil LaBute’s next, and Passengers, both of which people will at least see, as well as Life In Flight, which is one of those films that will probably bounce around a bunch of small festivals before getting a DVD release. He also, of course, has Watchmen.
It appears he’ll be diluting that slate a bit with another likely festival jumper, Barry Munday, an adaptation of Frank Turner Hollon’s Life is a Strange Place (Hollon and I actually live in the same state! Yippee!).
Variety says the book is the “story of a ladies’ man who learns he’s named in a paternity suit.” Hmm, I’m not sold. I found a better summary at Powells.com:
“Barry Munday is a thirty-three-year-old man of singular purpose–and that purpose is trying to bed women. One day, a too-good-to-be-true sexual encounter at a matinee with a beautiful teenage girl ends when her angry father catches them in flagrante delicto and attacks Barry with a trumpet. Barry wakes up in a hospital and [deja vu alert!] discovers his much-beloved gonads had to be surgically removed.”
Consider my attention gotten. I suggest clicking that link to read the rest of the summary; from there, it kinda gets… weird. By the way, Variety describes the film as a romantic comedy.
Barry Munday will be helmed (and written) by Chris D’Arienzo, who is making his debut in that role (he was a PA on Jingle All the Way back in the day). The guy is apparently more of an “up and coming” writer than director, though, as Variety says he has scripts in development at Warners and HBO, as well as some Off Brodway “hard rock musical.”
Anyway, Barry Munday is set to start shooting in April.