Robot & Frank was one of the surprise hits of Sundance 2012, packing a lot of heart and charm into a film about an aging burglar and his robot butler, It begged the questions why Frank Langella isn’t still getting leading man roles on a more regular basis, and why Peter Sarsgaard doesn’t voice more robots.
While the following story is sadly Langella-less, the good news is that Robot & Frank’s director Jake Schreier will be reteaming with Chris Ford for an untitled project for Treehouse Pictures, the company behind Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage. According to Deadline, the production company signed off on the duo’s original idea about a high-action love story set in a world reeling from the after-effects of the entire population becoming addicted to the Internet. Sounds like a really far-fetched idea to those of us here at Cinema Blend, where we’re always working to bring you the latest movie and entertainment news online, 24 hours a day. Oh wait, we get it now.
The project will be the second feature directing gig for Shreier, who won last year’s Alfred P. Sloane Feature Film Prize at Sundance. It will be the third screenplay for Ford, whose Robot & Frank script got him nominated for Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. His next project, now in post-production, is a film called Clown, which he co-wrote with the film’s director Jon Watts, about a loving father who wears a clown suit for his son’s birthday party, only to realize the suit turns its wearer into a killer. Sounds like it’s got great kitsch value, but we’re holding out our hopes for his next team-up with Shreier.
