Lawrence Kasdan and Terrence Malick are directors of different pedigrees but similar output. Since 1981, Kasdan has only made 10 feature films. Malick has only made five features, but had a twenty year sabbatical between 1978’s Days of Heaven and 1998’s The Thin Red Line.
Kasdan’s directing resume includes such films as Body Heat, The Big Chill, Grand Canyon, and Wyatt Earp. He also shared screenwriting duties on The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
It has just come to our attention that Kasdan will be sitting in the director’s chair once again for a new drama entitled Darling Companion. The film, similar in vein to his Big Chill and Grand Canyon productions, will also be his sixth collaboration with actor Kevin Kline. The film tells the story of a woman (played by Diane Keaton) who loves her dog more than her husband, Joseph (Kline). And then her husband loses the dog. When Joseph loses the dog after a wedding at their vacation home in the Rockies, the distraught Beth (Keaton) enlists the help of the few remaining guests and a mysterious young woman in a frantic search. Each member of the search party is affected by the adventure, which takes them in unexpected directions – comic, harrowing, and sometimes deeply emotional.
Just like Grand Canyon, Lawrence Kasdan shares writing duties with his wife Meg. Together they got a Best Original Screenplay nod for that feature. Could lightning strike twice? The cast is also set to include Elizabeth Moss (Mad Men) and Richard Jenkins (The Visitor, Let Me In).
Hopefully this is a return to form for the director, where he gets back to his roots. Kasdan, keep with original works and leave Stephen King adaptations to Frank Darabont.
