Variety reports that up-and-coming Scream 4 star Nico Tortorella and newcomer Mackenzie Davis are in talks to join director Drake Doremus‘ untitled next film. They would join Guy Pearce as a high school teacher who is tempted into cheating on his wife (Amy Ryan) with one of his students (Felicity Jones).
If they sign on, Davis would play the daughter of Pearce and Ryan’s characters, while Tortorella and his square jaw would play a man-whore swim-team jock named Aaron, whose reputation is preceded only by his penis. 
Any detected derision toward this utterly clichéd plot line is completely intentional. I have not seen Drake Doremus’ 2011 Sundance Grand Jury winner Like Crazy, but according to our own TFSers, it wasn’t awful. Doremus also co-wrote and directed Spooner and Douchebag.
I haven’t seen these movies, but given Doremus’s preference toward improvisation, I’m sure they were naturalistic specimens of super-indie filmmaking, and has clearly developing a following within that realm, culminating in the clout to cast Guy Pearce and Amy Ryan… and the star of Scream 4. Good news there.
Many directors of unarguable quality absolutely thrive on improvisation (Paul Greengrass, Christopher Guest), but from what I’ve heard of Like Crazy, Doremus may be relying on that process as more of a gimmick than a real approach to his story. And this untitled film’s plot….well, I imagine you remember a movie called American Beauty? Given Guy Pearce’s relative studliness, the Dirty Old Man trope may or may not apply.
No one can deny that Pearce and Ryan are stellar performers, though. Those two alone are capable of elevating utter dreck into watchable entertainment (Pearce in The Count of Monte Cristo, Ryan in every episode of The Office she has appeared in), so let’s keep an open mind, shall we?
Have you seen Like Crazy on the festival circuit? Would you watch this movie?