Frank Still Maggie Gyllenhaal - H 2013
LONDON – Cult comedy fanboys will delight in the first still released from the set of Lenny Abrahamson‘s movie Frank, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Domhnall Gleeson (Anna Karenina), Michael Fassbender (Prometheus) and Scoot McNairy (Argo).
The shot, while featuring Gyllenhaal and Gleeson, also includes Fassbender dressed as Frank Sidebottom, the persona of cult musician and British comedy legend Chris Sievey, on which the movie is loosely based.
Sidebottom’s trademark giant plastic head and eccentric act has made him a cult U.K. character.
Developed by Film4, the title is being financed by Film4, the British Film Institute, the Irish Film Board as well as tax breaks in New Mexico and Ireland.
Directed by Abrahamson (Adam & Paul), the movie is billed as a comedy about young wannabe musician Jon (Gleeson), who discovers he’s bitten off more than he can chew when he joins a band of eccentric pop musicians led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank (Fassbender) and his terrifying sidekick Clara (Gyllenhaal).
Written by Jon Ronson (The Men Who Stare at Goats) and Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Men Who Stare at Goats), the project is based on the memoir by Ronson and is a fictional story loosely inspired by Sidebottom as well as outsider musicians such as Daniel Johnston and Captain Beefheart.
