Paul Dano is joining Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming drama that is loosely based on the filmmaker’s childhood.
Spielberg wrote the script with frequent collaborator Tony Kushner and will direct the project, which is loosely based on the filmmaker’s formative years growing up in Arizona.
Dano will play a character inspired by Spielberg’s father, but as Amblin Partners notes, “with a separate and original voice.”
Williams is already set as the mother while Rogen will portray an uncle.
Shooting starts this summer, eyeing a 2022 release.
Spielberg’s father, Arnold Spielberg, was a towering figure in the director’s life. It was his father that gave him an 8m camera that he used to make his movies, and it was his father that even funded many of them as he encouraged his son to pursue his passion.
The parents’ divorce strained the relationship, and father figures became key persons, with flaws and need of redemptions, in many of Spielberg’s movies. Arnold Spielberg died in 2020 at the age of 103.
Dano will next be seen starring as the Riddler in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. The film will be released by Warner Brothers in March 2022. The actor made his directorial debut with the critically acclaimed film Wildlife, which premiered at the 2018 Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals. He co-wrote the screenplay alongside Zoe Kazan. The film was released by IFC in October 2018.
