Viggo Mortensen to topline "Captain Fantastic" drama

PanARMENIAN.Net - Viggo Mortensen is in talks to star in Captain Fantastic, a drama written and to be directed by Matt Ross, Deadline said.

Production will begin this summer. Lynette Howell and Jamie Patricof of Electric City Entertainment are producing.

In Captain Fantastic, Mortensen will play an idealistic father who, after a decade of living off the grid in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, must return with his six young kids to assimilate back into society.

What does it mean for a young filmmaker to land an actor like Mortensen, who is so particular in the roles he plays? ”Viggo Mortensen’s dedication to his craft and to the world of the story he’s telling have been an inspiration to me for years,” said Ross. “There is a depth to his art that I greatly admire. Any film he’s in is a film I want to see. He’s one of the greats. Getting to collaborate with him on Captain Fantastic is quite literally the best thing that’s happened to me since my wife asked me to marry her.”

Electric City’s Howell produced Ross’s debut film 28 Hotel Rooms, a 2012 Sundance Festival drama that starred Chris Messina and Marin Ireland as clandestine lovers whose affair is confined to a series of encounters in hotel rooms. Howell called Ross “a gifted filmmaker who has written an incredibly funny, poignant and original script.”

Ross is also an actor who played Alby Grant in HBO’s Big Love, and had a role in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator.

Electric City is currently in production on the Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden-helmed Mississippi Grind with Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn and Sienna Miller, and they wrapped the Tim Burton-directed Big Eyes with Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz for The Weinstein Company. They last produced the Derek Cianfrance-directed The Place Beyond The Pines.