It seems Alexander Skarsgård is making the most of his time off from fang banging in “True Blood.” The actor is currently shooting the indie flick “What Maisie Knew” with Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan, he just lined up “The East” with Brit Marling and now he’s added another project to his slate from a director we haven’t heard from in a while.
Henry-Alex Rubin, who made waves six years ago with his documentary “Murderball” (has it been that long?), is finally back behind the camera for his first fiction feature “Disconnect.” First announced back in April, Variety now reveals a pretty strong cast has come into place with Skarsgård, Frank Grillo, Colin Ford and Michael Nyqvist all joining the cast. Written by Andrew Stern, (”Return To Me”) the film will follow a wide variety of characters as they struggle with how technology has impacted their lives. Skarsgård will play a former Marine who seeks out an affair after being emotionally cut off by his wife, while struggling to make ends meet; Grillo plays a computer expert who is eager to protect his 15-year-old son (Ford) from the dangers of the internet, but is probably not aware that the kid is already forming a relationship online by posing as a teen girl; Nyqvist will play a guy who Skarsgård thinks stole his identity. It’s like “The Net” meets “Magnolia“!
If that talent doesn’t float your boat, rising star Andrea Riseborough is also eyeing a role as a TV reporter chasing a story about a male model who poses nude online. No way! Movies about the dangers of the internet can be tricky to pull off and very rarely turn out well. Rubin has been busy in the commercials world for the last few years, so we hope there is something truly compelling in this material to get him back to making movies, because right now this sounds like a feature length “Dateline” episode. [Variety]
