Jim Sturgess And Kirsten Dunst To Star In Sci-Fi Movie Upside Down
I’ve been keeping an eye onJuan Diego Solanas' surreal-sounding sci-fi storyUpside Downfor a while now. The picture has been in development with Onyx films and Studio 37 for a good while, and has never quite got off of the starting blocks – perhaps due to its mind boggling central concept.
Kirsten Dunsthas been in talks to star for some months, I believe, but the news thatJim Sturgesswill be taking on the male lead comes after earlier reports that Emile Hirsch was negotiating for the role. Sturgess is a real trade up from Hirsch, I think.
Here’s an official synopsis for the film from the2009 European Film Market Brochure:
Look up towards the sky and rub your eyes because you won’t believe what you see: cities, forests, and oceans with their own inverted gravity, only an arm’s length away, yet completely unreachable. Take a leap over to this alternate reality, two worlds – one above, one below? facing each other, and you’ll land in the extraordinary world ofUpside Down.
Adam is a seemingly ordinary guy in a very extraordinary universe. He lives humbly trying to make ends meet, but his romantic spirit holds on to the memory of a girl he met once upon a time from another world, an inverted affluent world with its own gravity, directly above but beyond reach… a girl named Eve. Their childhood flirtation becomes an impossible love. But when he catches a glimpse of grown?up Eve on television, nothing will get in the way of getting her back… Not even the law or science!
AfterAcross the UniverseandHeartless, this seems to mark some kind of trend for Sturgess, or at least a taste for the fantastical works of visually imaginative directors. When his casting was tweeted byProduction Weekly, I grinned ear to ear. He’s perfect for this kind of world.
To give you a taste of Solanas' skills, here’s his short filmThe Man Without a Head. LikeUpside Down, it’s a romantic story with a striking central conceit.
Oh… sorry. I couldn’t find a subtitled version. My bad. Looked gorgeous though, right?
As for the casting of Dunst… I’ll go by what my mother told me and if I can’t say anything nice, then I won’t say anything at all.
