Adam Driver is finally no longer an up-and-coming star. He’s nearly a bonafide A-lister now, with his turn in FORCE AWAKENS awakening (appropriately enough) a massive interest in his bizarre, intense look and acting style. So, like Tom Hiddleston after Loki, Driver’s decided that the next natural move after the unprecedented success of his movie is to work with Jim Jarmusch.
We don’t know much about the DEAD MAN/NIGHT ON EARTH/BROKEN FLOWERS director’s next, just that it’s called PATERSON, it’s being co-financed by Amazon, and will feature Driver and EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS star Golshifteh Farahani. It’s “described as a wry comedy,” and will no doubt prominently feature the titular New Jersey city (which I happened to frequent while growing up in North Jersey).
Jarmusch is one of those guys who has worked steadily for over three decades despite critics and mainstream audiences refusal to embrace him wholeheartedly, and he shows no signs of slowing down or tuning his style to accomodate the increasingly short attention spans of contemporary filmgoers. I thought his last film, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, was as Jarmusch a Jarmusch movie as he’s ever made, and, like WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, managed to beat some life into the dead horse that is vampire movies (it also gave us another brilliant, moody Jarmusch soundtrack). Driver’s got that kind of inherent coldness and mannered behavior that should work perfectly in Jarmusch’s world, and his comic talent should thrive while deadpanning the writer/director’s signature, stylized dialogue.
Like Amazon’s CHI-RAQ, this will be getting a theatrical release, though I doubt it will be as wide as Spike’s underrated head-turner. This will be Driver’s first big headlining role, and I find myself eagerly looking forward to finding out what the collab with him and Jarmusch (one of my favorite directors) will be like.
And we know that Jarmusch has that fabled Bill Murray voicemail number, so maybe he can get him onboard, seeing as he keeps mentioning BROKEN FLOWERS as one of his favorite of his own performances?
