Colman Domingo made time in his busy schedule to briefly appear in Gus Van Sant‘s new hostage thriller “Dead Man’s Wire” because he was drawn to the timely subject matter. The 1977-set film is based on the true story of Tony Kiritsis, a real estate developer who took his broker hostage after falling behind his mortgage payments. Bill Skarsgård stars as Kiritsis, a societal outcast who feels he’s been screwed over by the powers that be.
“This is about an everyman feeling like they have no resources or any agency in the world,” he said at Venice Film Festival during the official press conference. “We need to tell stories like that again and again because this is exactly what happens when people are up against the wall. We can prevent things like this by really examining these people as human beings.”
“Dead Man’s Wire” will premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday. Skarsgård missed the press conference due to scheduling conflicts. However his co-stars Domingo, Myha’la, Cary Elwes and Cassian Elwes were in attendance to talk about the film.
“We’s shooting a movie in Australia right now,” Cassian Elwes said. “The producers are worried about letting him go. but it’s not for lack of enthusiasm.”
In an interview with Variety ahead of Venice, Van Sant said he is drawn to make films about outsiders, having previously directed movie such as “Drugstore Cowboy,” “My Own Private Idaho” and “Good Will Hunting.”
“I relate to them,” Van Sant said. “Stories about one individual versus a whole system are just
something I respond to emotionally.”
Although the gripping true story behind “Dead Man’s Wire” happened in the 1970s, Van Sant sees it as timely as ever, considering Luigi Mangione’s shooting of the health-care executive last December. “It made me realize we’re telling a story that’s also happening today,” he told Variety.
At the press conference, Van Sant elaborated about the relevance of the Mangione shooting as well as the recent election. “There are things happening that are dovetailing into our own project. We thought, ‘Is that good or bad?’ It was interesting,” he said. “We kept going in telling our story. It probably affected us as we made it, but we didn’t change anything.”
Van Sant has been at the Venice Film Festival before with “My Own Private Idaho,” which earned River Phoenix a best actor award, and “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” starring Uma Thurman. He’s been nominated for an Oscar twice with “Good Will Hunting” and “Milk.”
