Duke Johnson is making his solo directing debut with the highly-anticipated noir, “The Actor.”
Johnson reunites with his “Anomalisa” co-director Charlie Kaufman to executive produce “The Actor,” which stars André Holland as a man who realizes he has no idea what his true identity is after surviving a brutal attack in 1950s Ohio. Johnson co-wrote the script with Stephen Cooney, which is based on the novel “Memory” by Donald E. Westlake.
The official synopsis reads: “Paul Cole (Holland) is stranded in a mysterious small town with no memory of who he is or how he got here. Without a sense of identity or purpose, he starts from scratch and begins courting a local costume designer Edna (Gemma Chan). As bits and pieces of his past slowly emerge, he attempts to find his way home, but time is slippery, appearances can’t be trusted, and it’s unclear which of his identities is real.”
May Calamawy, Asim Chaudhry, Joe Cole, Fabien Frankel, Olwen Fouéré, Edward Hogg, Toby Jones, Youssef Kerkour, Simon McBurney, Tanya Reynolds, Tracey Ullman, and Scott Alexander Young co-star.
The NEON film was originally announced in 2021 with Ryan Gosling starring and executive producing. Gosling still is EPing the feature. To note, lead star Holland recently appeared in “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” which was executive produced by Gosling’s “Place Beyond the Pines” director Derek Cianfrance.
“The Actor” is Johnson’s long-awaited first solo feature film directing credit. He previously served as a supervising animation director for “Cosmos: Possible Worlds,” and collaborated with “Anomalisa” co-director Kaufman as a producer of animation on “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”
“Anomalisa” earned Johnson, Kaufman, and Rosa Tran an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film in 2016.
“The Actor” is produced by Johnson, Abigail Spencer, Paul Young, and Ken Kao.
“The Actor” premieres in theaters March 14 from NEON. Check out the trailer below.
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