Writer-director Greg Kwedar is going from prison drama to fantastical critters with the musical comedy, Possum Song.
Movie titles can often be disappointing. Between The Temples turned out not to be a Jason Statham-esque revenge thriller. The Outrun, we soon learned, had nothing to do with racing Ferraris across 1980s America (though Michael Bay may soon fix that). Anthrapoid emphatically was not a giant monster movie.
What a relief, then, to learn that the forthcoming musical comedy Possum Song isn’t just a cute title. Its plot, the work of screenwriter Isaac Adamson, really does feature a possum – one with supernatural powers.
It’s to be the next film from writer-director Greg Kwedar, who most recently made the Oscar-nominated prison drama Sing Sing. Featuring some wonderful performances, not least from its lead, Colman Domingo, it was one of our favourite movies of 2023 – and a favourite with awards bodies, too. Among its numerous gongs were three Academy Awards nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Kwedar and Best Actor for Domingo.
Given that Sing Sing was an acclaimed film based on a true story, it’s perhaps a little surprising that Kwedar has chosen such a fantastical-sounding piece as his follow-up. According to Deadline, Miles Teller will star as Nashville music star whose fame was based entirely on a hit album someone else wrote; desperate for a follow-up hit, he makes a pact with a musically gifted possum.
Read more: Interview | Director Greg Kwedar on Sing Sing
As goofy as it sounds, there were several moments of levity in Sing Sing. One of the shows the inmates of the titular prison stage is Breakin’ The Mummy’s Code – a madcap musical comedy in which a prince travels through time meeting an assortment of figures, including Hamlet and Robin Hood. It could be that Kwedar quite fancied the idea of making an entire movie along similarly antic lines.
FilmNation Entertainment, the production company behind Conclave and Anora, will be shopping Possum Song around Cannes later this month. Isaac Adamson has written the script for the film and Teller be producing alongside Kwedar, Clint Bentley and Lee Stobby.
“This is a one-of-a-kind film,” FilmNation boss Ben Browning said in a statement. “Greg’s vision, Isaac’s hilarious script and the magnetic performance of Miles Teller will create the kind of cinematic ride that audiences are craving – with showstopping music, visceral shocks, possums, humour and emotion.”
It’s an intriguing-sounding movie, to say the least, and a good fit for Miles Teller – he was one candidate to play Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s sequin-encrusted biopic, but lost out to Austin Butler.
We’ll bring you more on Possum Song as we get it.
