'Goats' Cast Rounded Out

Goats is a movie that's interesting for several reasons. First, it sounds pretty weird, but in a potentially unique and good way (more on that in a bit). Second, it's the directorial debut of Christopher Neil, who comes from a pretty good pedigree: his dad Bill worked at Industrial Light & Magic during the Empire/Raiders/Jedi years, and has been a part of many notable effects teams over the years (the Bruce Willis vehicles Die Hard and The Fifth Element jump out on his lengthy resume). Bill Neil is also Francis Ford Coppola's brother-in-law, making Christopher... um, somehow related to that legendary filmmaker. So I'm at least mildly curious to see what he does for his first project as a helmer.

Goat Man, meet Hippie Mom

With recent news, courtesy of JoBlo, of some additional casting for Goats, the project has just jumped up on my interest meter much more. In addition to the previously-cast Graham Phillips and Ty Burrell, five additional (and bigger-name) actors have joined the cast: David Duchovny, Vera Farmiga, Keri Russell, Minnie Driver, and Will Arnett.

The screenplay for Goats is written by Mark Poirier, based on his novel. It's the story of a 15-year-old (Graham Phillips) who moves away from his new age mother's (Farmiga) Southwestern home to the East Coast to attend prep school. He leaves behind his mentor, a pot-smoking goat herder called Goat Man (Duchovny), his mom's boyfriend (Arnett), and her friend (Minnie Driver) to try and fit into a totally different world with his father (Ty Burrell) and his new wife (Russell).

Sounds pretty weird to me, but I think the Goat Man role sounds pretty perfect for Duchovny, who I'm predicting will steal the show. But I have no idea how big of a part he'll play; the film sounds like it'll focus on Ellis (the 15-year-old) and his journey, with the others simply being the supporting cast around him. It might be quirky enough to work, or it might just end up being stupid. Either way I think I'm going to try to keep an eye on this one. It's currently slated for a 2011 release, so with the cast now solidified it should go into production soon, aiming for completion towards the end of the year.

Comments

[rebel901]

Goats is really the story of Goatman and Ellis...with Ellis' mom rounding out the main cast of characters. I read the book and could not put it down. Just hope that the screenplay can do justice to the novel. This is a perfect role for Duchovny, who should steal the show. I hope that this will be a major success for Duchovny. He deserves it!

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