Ryan Gosling may have saved a woman from a speeding car, but some of our other favorite stars are doing the next best thing: starring in an anti-fracking movie. Gus Van Sant is directing, and the cast includes Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Frances McDormand, probably Hal Holbrook — and, if you can get to Pittsburgh this weekend, maybe you.
There’s only been vague information about the plot of the movie, called Promised Land, but this isn’t a documentary — it’s a butts-in-seats triumph-of-the-little-guy film with big-name stars. (Also possibly Dave Eggers wrote the script?) So it’s got the potential to seriously raise awareness about fracking and its dangers. Think less Gasland, more Erin Brokovich.
The Focus Features/Participant Media drama stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski as rival corporate executives, with the former thesp playing a character whose life is thrown into disarray after he arrives in a small town.
Frances McDormand is set to co-star as Damon’s sales partner, who prefers to follow the rules as opposed to breaking protocol. Rosemarie DeWitt will play a schoolteacher caught between Damon’s and Krasinski’s characters.
Holbrook will play an engineer who lives in the town and opposes a corporate takeover being led by Damon.
The open casting call for extras is this Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Westin convention center in Pittsburgh. They apparently prefer “good character faces,” which I think means you’re funny-looking, but aside from that they don’t care what you look like or whether you have acting experience (although you should own your own pen). Grist readers in fracking country: This might be a good chance to help some handsome actors save you from something much bigger than a car.
