Earlier in the month, Zach Braff sent out a message to his Kickstarter supporters with a not-so-cryptic hint that his anticipated sophomore feature, Wish I Was Here, would be debuting as planned at Sundance 2014.
He asked us to keep it quiet, because the news hadn’t gone public yet, and it took every ounce of reserve I had to keep the secret.
But the announcement has officially arrived today, and with it Braff has released the first official images from the film, giving us a great look at his on-screen family.
“WISH I WAS HERE” tells the story of Aidan Bloom, a struggling actor, husband and dad who at 35 is still trying to find his true place in life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially, and Aidan passes his time fantasizing about being the futuristic Space Knight he always dreamed he’d be as a little kid.
When his ailing father can no longer afford to pay for private school for his two kids, and with the only available public school on its last legs, Aidan reluctantly agrees to attempt to home-school them. The result is chaos, until Aidan decides to scrap the traditional academic curriculum and come up with his own. Through teaching them about life his way, he gradually discovers the parts of himself he couldn’t find.
In the first image below, we get to see the young Pierce Gagnon and Joey King starring as his son and daughter, Tucker and Grace. And in the second, we see Kate Hudson with him as his wife, Sarah.
Josh Gad, Ashley Greene, Mandy Patinkin, Jim Parsons, Phill Lewis, and Donald Faison complete the stellar cast, with Scrubs’ Rowdy making a secret cameo somewhere in the film too.
Speaking about the news, Braff wrote on the film’s official site,
Dear Friends,
I am so proud to announce that “Wish I Was Here” will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival! It is quite an honor.
It means so much to me to premiere this film at the very same festival where I premiered “Garden State” exactly ten years ago. And, we would have never gotten here without your support.
Kickstarter Backers, YOU guys made this happen. I didn’t get into Sundance, we got into Sundance. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping to make my dream a reality.
xoxoxoxo and sometimes y,
Zach
He’s following up his Garden State debut with a script he co-wrote with his brother, Adam.
No word yet on a firm release date for Wish I Was Here following its Sundance debut, but Braff has previously spoken of his intentions to release it in the fall/autumn, so here’s to hoping that the road to distribution will be an incredibly smooth one. This is one we can’t wait to see.
