We’ve brought you a fair amount of casting news lately on “Drive”, a new film by Nicolas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising, Bronson) about a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a criminal getaway driver for hire.
The film began shooting last weekend in Los Angeles, with a genuinely peculiar blend of creative talent for a film that looks for all the world like a run of the mill Hollywood action thriller. We have Ryan Gosling (Oscar-nominated as a drug-taking teacher in Half Nelson) in the lead role, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman (Blade 2, Hellboy) co-starring and a script by Hossein Amini, who was Oscar-nominated for the screenplay for The Wings of the Dove! On top of all of this, the director has shown himself to have a propensity for making films that look and feel like primal, barbaric fever-dreams. It all adds up to an intriguing, heady mix.
The biggest questions might be whether Ryan Gosling can lead a film like this and whether director Nicolas Winding Refn can find a style that is a little more, shall we say, accessible. With this much talent on board, it seems that it will either be a colossal car-wreck (sorry), or a great triumph.
Feel free to comment below – can Gosling handle this sort of role? Is Refn the right director?
