Nathan and David Zellner are no strangers to Sundance, but perhaps they wish the festival was as new and exciting to them as it was when they premiered Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter back in 2014.
That's not to say Park City has grown stale for the directing brothers, merely that they enjoy new experiences. So much so, in fact, that it has become the driving force in their creative mission over the course of their career. They make it a point not to explore material that they have already explored, so with every new film, they add a new genre to their résumés. For their current project, the subversively titled Damsel, that means "Western."
Damsel takes place in the American frontier west sometime in the 1800s. Robert Pattinson plays a wealthy dandy by the name of Samuel who hires a priest (in fact played by David Zellner) to accompany him in tracking down and marrying his beloved Penelope. Penelope is played by Mia Wasikowska who had two brilliant and strong-willed performances at the festival this year with this film and Nick Pesce'sPiercing.
I sat down with the Zellners the day after their new film premiered to discuss their "fresh start" philosophy, their roots as child filmmakers, and what's important to remember when acting in your own films.
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Damsel opens theatrically in the US on June 22, 2018.
