Having seen the release of two features in less than two months’ time — the theatrical opening of Crystal Fairy and direct-to-DVD release of Magic Magic — it’s safe to say Sebastián Silva, previously of little-known festival fare, got something worthwhile out of his year. Now that both have made it in the wild, a sixth feature — news of which hits only six years after his feature debut — is coming into focus: according to TheWrap, Silva is assembling players for Nasty Baby, a dramatic piece that sounds not at all unlike, forgive the reference, a reverse-gender version of Gayby. (You probably don’t remember / even know what Gayby is; here’s a trailer.)
The writer-director will take a leading spot alongside TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe, the pair playing a couple, Freddy and Mo, who turn toward their friend, Anna, a family practitioner with ideal surrogate qualities. The lattermost role has been circled by Kristen Wiig, for whom Nasty Baby‘s more serious angles carry appeal; with the actress hoping to open possibilities in her post-SNL career, it’s bound to be, at least in part, different from what the comedienne is often handed. (In addition to what’s noted above, TheWrap inform us Silva‘s screenplay sees this trio “navigate the idea of creating life and interact with a variety of multicultural characters including a potentially dangerous neighborhood resident whom the locals refer to as The Bishop [Reg E. Cathey]).” Should other deals shake out as planned, the supporting cast will include Alia Shawkat, Denis O’Hare (The Dallas Buyer’s Club, American Horror Story), and Darren Aronofsky regular Mark Margolis.
The balancing of tone is something I thought Silva handled with relative skill in Crystal Fairy — to say nothing of Magic Magic following a different, much darker trajectory of its own — and to see that he wouldn’t play a sitcom-ish story with all that entails is nice, all things considered. Killer Films, Fabula, and David Hinojosa & Charlie Dibe (Damsels in Distress) will produce Nasty Baby.
Do you like the sound of Wiig and Silva handling a project together? Any thoughts on these first descriptions?