Caffeinated Clint
One minute he’s got a skate stuck in his skull (by Michael Myers in “Halloween H20”) the next he’s bouncing off the walls (in “Inception”), fair to say the more Joseph Gordon-Levitt moves, the higher he rises.
The talented young actor, who has no less than four films out this year, is taking advantage of his newly-snagged clout and asking to play director.
…And like any red-blooded male would, he’s chosen* to involve Scarlett Johansson in his dream.
The “Avengers” actress will star opposite “The Dark Knight Rises”‘ Gordon-Levitt in a new untitled comedy about “a modern-day Don Juan, and his quest to become less of a “selfish dick.”
Director Gordon-Levitt plays the Don Juan dick.
Gordon-Levitt tells Deadline that he’s spent enough time on movie sets to warrant knowing what makes a good movie, let alone director.
“I was a child actor for years and quit at 19, went to school awhile, and a big part of why I came back was that I ultimately wanted to make movies,” Gordon-Levitt said. “I spent a year working with Chris Nolan, Rian Johnson, Steven Spielberg, and I did my best to pay attention. I’ve also been making short films for a long time now, I’ve directed a ton of them, and that is a huge part of why I feel comfortable and confident in this.”
Gordon-Levitt said the script for this film is the first one he’s finished that he actually believed was good enough to be a movie.
“This is the first time I finished a feature film I thought was good enough to make into a movie,” he said. “I’ve written others, including one mammothy huge sprawling thing that encompasses my entire point of view of everything since I was 20 years old.”
“I wrote myself a helluva role, one that people wouldn’t necessarily thought of me for”.
Problem is, Gordon-Levitt is committed to playing a small role in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”. That and Levitt’s directorial debut will shoot in April.
“It will be tricky schedule-wise, but I was honest with Quentin upfront,” Gordon-Levitt said. “He was so cool and encouraging. He said, ‘You strike me as the kind of guy who would want to direct,’ and I took that as high praise.”
* Scarlett and Joe were caught smooching a couple of times in Hollywood so I doubt he had to twist her arm into being his leading lady.
