Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2013: #58. Richard Ayoade’s The Double

The Double

Director: Richard Ayoade
Writer(s): Ayoade & Avi Korine
Producer(s): Alcove Entertainment’s Amina Dasmal and Robin C. Fox
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Jesse Eisenberg, Wallace Shawn, Rade Serbedzija, Cathy Moriarty, Noah Taylor

Submarine was the equivalent to hitting a homer in your very first major league at bat. Sharp, witty and layered, Richard Ayoade fired up round two quickly after and employed the services of Avi Korine (co-writer) thesps Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska and cinematographer Erik Wilson (Tyrannosaur, The Imposter).

Gist: The Double is billed as a funny and frightening story about an insignificant man driven to near breakdown by the appearance of his doppelganger. This modern retelling of Dostoyevsky’s novella sees Eisenberg playing a clerk who encounters a literal facsimile of himself working at his office. The doppelganger tries to take over his life and the film will follow the clerk’s “descent into madness.”

Release Date: I was surprised that Sundance and Berlin didn’t make any mention of the film in their line-ups – perhaps the producers are  looking further down the calender year for a festival/theatrical release.