Director Mark Pellington is getting back to fictional films after a side trip into big-scale concert films with U2 3D. He’s in the middle of setting up the thriller I Melt With You, and according to Deadline, he’s hired Thomas Jane and Jeremy Piven to star.
Glenn Porter wrote the script, based on an idea he figured out with Pellington, which follows the interconnected lives of four men. There aren’t many more details than that, though from the sound of it, it’ll lean heavily towards the dramatic and thoughtful rather than car chases and explosions.
According to the director, it’s exactly the film he wants to be making right now, but hasn’t been able to because of Hollywood’s reticence to tackle darker, mature material. "I am 48 and found a dearth of films that speak to my life experience," Pellington said in a statement. "Where is my generation's version of Cassavetes' Husbands? It is hard to get anything idiosyncratic made for a budget. I have been shooting music videos on small cameras at low cost and wanted to apply it to a film. This is about four guys and deals with mortality, aging and friendship. It is very dark and very low budget. I have nothing against the larger budget movies I have made. I just want to make movies and doing it this way improves my chances."
Jane was last seen on the big screen (in some countries) in Give ‘Em Hell, Malone and is currently in HBO show Hung. Piven, meanwhile, has Entourage to help pay the bills when he’s not acting in movies like The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.
Pellington kicks off shooting the movie next month in California.