I was all smiles when news surfaced last May that Mean Creek‘s Jacob Estes was quickly jumping into production with the foursome of James McAvoy, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Anna Friel for some nutty indie dramatic thriller about neighbors going ballistic. Recent reports from Seattle are that the production has hit a rough patch.
This quirky bit of news from CNN shows that The Details has hit some kind of snag – which leads us to think that Mark Gordon Productions has run into some financing issues or logistical problems which would be surprising since the elaborate synopsis (with plot spoilers galore) basically tells us that the production should not be running into financing problems.
It all started with those wretched raccoons. The very morning after Jeff (McAvoy) completed his perfect garden with newly laid turf, he wakes up to find it in total disarray, with each strip of grass flipped over as if he had been singled out by some kind of lawn terrorist…
And things are not going great with his wife Nealy (Banks) either. They’ve been married 10 years, and have a beautiful 2 year old son, but their marriage is going through a rough patch, and the cracks are starting to show…
The day after a giant bust-up with his wife Jeff finds himself falling into the arms of his best friend Rebecca. And in just one extraordinarily foolish bout of sexual healing, Jeff’s blown it; he’s cheated on the wife he dearly loves and in so doing unleashes a sack full of unintended consequences – all of which are compounded by some horrendous decision making.
To start with, Rebecca’s husband Pete finds out and blackmails him to the tune of $100,000…
All the while Jeff’s been trying to push through a house extension that requires his crazy neighbor Lila (Linney) to cast a blind eye over the plot-line measurements. Unfortunately his carefully positioned raccoon poison somehow kills her cat, throwing Lila into a fit of rage. It seems Lila also knows about Jeff’s affair with Rebecca, and she gives him an ultimatum: sleep with her or she tells Nealy everything… AND put the kibosh on the house extension. And surely she couldn’t get pregnant. Could she?
So now, with a shit-storm brewing in Jeff’s life, he has a desperate urge to atone for his wrongdoings. In a fit of ‘selflessness’, he donates a kidney to Lincoln, one of Jeff’s slightly unpredictable basketball buddies. Problem is, with Lincoln now feeling so indebted, and being the owner of a deadly bow and arrow set, Jeff’s problem with his neighbor Lila is about to go away for good…