Last March, Empire had one of its most surreal movie star encounters, while visiting the set of Frank Darabont’s The Mist. There we were, in Thomas Jane’s trailer, when the former Punisher grabbed his iPod (not a euphemism, thankfully) and shoved it in our face with great enthusiasm, talking ten to the dozen about a piece of 3D test footage that he had shot for an upcoming movie.
Of course, since we didn’t have 3D glasses, it was hard to tell if the test had been successful, but nevertheless we listened to Jane’s sales pitch, watched a blurry piece of footage, and then filed it away as enthusiasm, nothing more, nothing less. An actor? Directing in 3D?!? What’s the world coming to?
Well, now there’s egg all over Empire’s face – in 3D!! For Jane this week started shooting his directorial debut, The Dark Country, a noir thriller that will be shot not only in high-def 2D, but also high-def 3D!!
In fact, by doing so, Jane joins the likes of Robert Zemeckis and James Cameron as one of the first directors to shoot this way, so we applaud him. From tiny iPods grow mighty big screen adventures, it seems.
Anyway, we might as well address the headline of our news story, and five paragraphs in seems like the right place to do it. For Lauren German (the star of Hostel Part II) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy himself) have just joined Jane in the cast of the movie, which is about a newly-married couple enduring a hellish honeymoon.
Tab Murphy – who has a number of Disney movies under his belt, including Brother Bear and Tarzan – wrote the script, with comic book writer genius Steve Niles on board as producer. Sony are backing the film through their new Stage 6 Films production arm, along with Hyde Park Entertainment.
The film started shooting last week in Albuquerque, so let’s wish Jane belated good luck.