The fact that Michael Fassbender is turning up in connection with so many different and varied projects is pretty much concrete evidence of his diversity and range as an actor.
From an IRA hunger striker to a sex addicted socialite to an emotionless android, Fassbender is a carving a career that alleviates himself from typecasting. He’s managed to create a unique path which allows him to pretty much play any character he wants.
Since last year’s Shame and this year’s Prometheus, films which have boosted his profile, he has aligned a broad array of projects for himself to potentially star in.
He’s been connected to an Assassin’s Creed adaptation and the Lynne Ramsay helmed western Jane Got a Gun, but his next project will see him flex his funny bone and his singing muscles as he has officially signed on to the British comedy entitled Frank.
The film charts the story of a young musician named Jon (played by Domhnall Gleeson) who joins a band led by the enigmatic Frank (Fassbender). As time goes on though he discovers that he may have joined something that is way beyond his control. Considering the world that this is set in we presume there will be a lot of singing, which Fassbender already has covered.
The project has been set up at Film4 with director Lenny Abrahamson and screenwriters Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan attached. Abrahamson isn’t a name I’ve come across before but his feature film What Richard Did is debuting at TIFF next week and it seems Film4 are impressed with the results.
The screenwriters I’m a little more familiar with. Peter Straughan wrote last year’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which earned him an Oscar nomination and previously wrote The Men Who Stare At Goats, which was an adaptation of the book by Jon Ronson.
Ronson himself is a terrific satirist, who has namely stuck to writing non-fiction investigation books on strange often comedic subjects. The Men Who Stare At Goats is one example and his most recent book The Psychopath Test was another.
Frank is his first work of fiction but knowing Ronson’s background in documentaries and investigative journalism he’s likely done a lot of research in the area to create an authentic film which reflects that world.
Frank is set to begin filming late this year with the project is being shopped to the international market at Toronto.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
