Robert De Niro, Oscar Isaac, and Anne Hathaway Joining Cate Blanchett in ARMAGEDDON TIME

Robert De Niro, Oscar Isaac, Anne Hathaway and Donald Sutherland have been cast in the upcoming period drama Armageddon Time. They will join the previously cast Cate Blanchett in the film.

James Gray (Ad Astra, The Lost City of Z) is directing the film and the story it tells is said to draw from his own childhood memories. “The coming-of-age story explores friendship and loyalty against the backdrop of an America poised to elect Ronald Reagan as president.”

When talking about the project and what kind of film he is looking to make, Gray said:

“Every film you make is different, but I’m trying to do something that is the opposite of the vast, lonely and dark void of the movie I just directed. I’m anxious to make something that is very much about people, about human emotions and interactions between people, and I want it to be filled with warmth and tenderness. In some sense, yes it’s about my childhood, but an illustration of familial love really on every level. I’m of the belief that most people do their best and that they try their best under difficult circumstances and in some sense that’s a beautiful thing and very moving to me.

“In a grander sense if I may sound a little sententious and pretentious, history and myth always begin in the microcosm of the personal and though you are using something so small and specific in your life, the result can become universal if it accesses real emotion. I’ve tried to move to the opposite of a cold dark space. I want to be political and historic about it, but fill it with love and warmth. What happened with me, very simply, I got in big trouble when I was around 11, though the boys are 12 in the movie, and the story is about my movement from the public education that I got into private school and a world of privilege. This film is about what that meant for me and how lucky I was, and how unlucky my friend was and about that break meant for me and what it meant for him.”

This sounds like an interesting story and what I like most about what I’m hearing is that it’s coming from the director’s heart and soul. This is going to be a super personal movie for him and I’m curious to see what his story will entail.

Source: Deadline