‘Labor Day’ Starts Shooting
Jason Reitman teams up with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin for his latest dark comedy.
Shooting has just kicked off on Jason Reitman's latest feature, Labor Day, in Massachusetts, which from the sound of the premise appears to be right up the director's alley of crafting black but light-hearted comic takes around potentially depressing subjects.
Based on Joyce Maynard's 2009 novel of the same name, the film's set to star Kate Winslet as a depressed single mother whose reclusive life with her 13-year-old-son, Henry (played by Changeling's Gattlin Griffith), is shaken up when they take in an escaped convict, to be played by Josh Brolin. As expected, the events of this weekend profoundly change them.
Reitman has recruited an intriguing cast of support talent including Clark Gregg (The Avengers) as Henry's father Gerald; Alexie Gilmore (Definitely, Maybe) plays Marjorie, Gerald's new wife and Henry's stepmom; Lucas Hedges (Moonrise Kingdom) plays her son Richard; James Van Der Beek tackles the role of Officer Treadwell; while Aussie Jacki Weaver has also nabbed a currently unspecified role.
The director's most recent film - Young Adult, which saw Reitman reteam with Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, and chronicles Charlize Theron as a prickly divorcee who can't seem to move on from her high school glory days - could be deemed a misfire after the critics and audience darlings Up In The Air, Juno and Thank You For Smoking, but Labor Day looks like a return to form.
Labor Day is scheduled to release in 2013.
Photo credit: Reitman, courtesy of Getty Images/Andreas Rentz.
