Blue Valentine director and star reunite for "epic movie"

After last year’s incredible, heart-wrenching Blue Valentine (fully endorsed by Jess, Simon and myself), writer/director Derek Cianfrance is wisely re-teaming with the wonderfully talented Ryan Gosling for his next feature film, Indiewire report.

What Cianfrance describes as “kind of an epic movie … I’ve had people tell me they feel like its ‘The Deer Hunter’ meets ‘The Godfather’” is a crime/mystery film called The Place Beyond the Pines. The story focuses on the personal journey of a motorcycle stunt rider who, upon learning he has a child, tries to become a father.

The stunt rider, Luke, will be played by Gosling, who Cianfrance says will perform his own stunts after taking motorcycle lessons in preparation for the role.

Inspired by the books of Jack London and set around a Darwinian notion of survival through ancestry, the film will examine the effects of fatherhood as a transformative role and how emotion is drawn through the link between generations.

Set for a large thematic scale the film ought to still have the raw and intense edge that made Blue Valentine such an affecting and genuinely moving piece of cinema.

Presently in the middle of financing, the film is set to shoot in Schenectady, New York over the (U.S.) summer. And if Blue Valentine is any kind of promise of Cianfrance’s filmmaking talents then let’s hope Gosling keeps taking those lessons because this is one film I absolutely cannot wait to see.

Discuss: Are you looking forward to seeing Ryan as a motorcycle dad or are you a little concerned that he won’t be quite as magical without the marvellous Ms Williams?