Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2012: #60. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ He Loves Me

#60. He Loves Me

Director: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Writer(s): Actress Zoe Kazan
Producers: Bona Fide Productions’ Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

The Gist: Calvin (Dano) is a young novelist who achieved phenomenal success early in his career but is now struggling with his writing – as well as his romantic life. While suffering from writer’s block, is told to write the woman he thinks will love him. He winds up creating Ruby and willing her into existence, “Weird Science” style. When Calvin finds Ruby (Kazan), in the flesh, sitting on his couch about a week later, he is completely flabbergasted that his words have turned into a living, breathing person…(more)

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Paul Dano, Alia Shawkat, Deborah Ann Woll, Steve Coogan, Annette Bening, Elliott Gould, Chris Messina, Zoe Kazan and Aasif Mandvi

List Worthy Reasons…: Their 2006 breakout audience pleasing Little Miss Sunshine probably brought a truckload of directing offers for the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, but in the end, they opted for actress Zoe Kazan’s screenwriting debut which says plenty about the material at hand (or perhaps their rapport with LMS’ Paul Dano). The Searchlight project managed to attract a diverse set of supporting actors and with Dano in the lead this might be a sophomore project worth keeping tabs on.

Release Date/Status?: Fox Searchlight have yet to date the pic – but it’ll definitely show sometime in 2012. Perhaps a Toronto/Telluride/NYFF festival premiere?