Thomas Jane has always struck me as an always-the-bridesmaid actor. He’s someone who everyone agrees is very good, but his forays into lead roles in big movies (The Punisher, Deep Blue Sea) haven’t resulted in him shooting up the a-list. Nevertheless he’s very good in TV’s Hung and still makes interesting flicks. Now it appears he’s got a new movie role up his sleeve, as Deadline report that he and Jeremy Piven have signed up for I Melt With You, which may sound like a rom-com but is actually a thriller set to be directed by Mark Pellington (Arlington Road, The Mothman Prophecies, although he’s primarily known as a music video director).
Not much is known about the movie, other than that ‘the thriller follows the interconnecting lives of four men’. Glenn Porter wrote the script, based on an idea by him and Pellington. The director commented, “I am 48 and found a dearth of of films that speak to my life experience. 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.”
And he is certainly doing it cheaply, as shooting starts in August with a budget of under a million bucks. It’s certainly an interesting direction for Pellington to take, although rather bold to assert he wants to make his generation’s version of John Cassavetes’ Husbands, as little in his film track record suggests an infinity with that sort of film. But perhaps he’s right and the constraints of Hollywood don’t let him tell the stories he wants to, and now he’s found a way.