Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst join ‘Upside Down’

I like Jim Sturgess, I think he has some good talent, but I don’t think he has used it to great effect yet. I thought he was great, and his voice was better in Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe.  The film received some very mixed reviews, probably more on the negative side. I just thought he had some great charisma, he carried the film well. I think I like him because he seems to have talent, and not just Hollywood good looks. Kirsten Dunst however has to be one of the most forgettable actresses working in Hollywood. I racked my brain for a bit to remember what she had been in lately. It just seems everything overshadows her. In Marie Antionette the production itself did the job, in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People she was forgotten over the much more charismatic Simon Pegg, and in Spider-man 3 the whole movie was forgettable. Something tells me Sturgess’s rising star is going to overshadow her once again.

From Variety.com:

PARIS — Jim Sturgess will play the male lead opposite Kirstin Dunst in Juan Solanas’ $50 million “Upside Down,” a Romeo and Juliet-style sci-fi fantasy.

Pic is set up at Aton Soumache’s Onyx Films and produced by Soumache and Dimitri Rassam. Jim Skotchdopole (“Men on Fire”) will exec produce. Key techs includes “Watchmen” production designer Alex McDowell.

WB distributes in France and Tele Munchen Group will handle the German distrib. Gregoire Melin’s international sales shingle Kinology reps the film in other markets.

“Upside Down” is co-produced by Studio 37, a subsid of France Telecom-Orange, and Montreal-based company Transfilm.

Pic is in pre-production and will start shooting in Montreal in mid-February for a fall 2011 release.

A Romeo and Juliet style sci-fi fantasy? Sounds like a big mish mash of ideas. Although, I’m a total geek for sci-fi and anything that brings it more and more into the mainstream I’m going to be in love with. Let’s just not screw it up even more, and increase its stigma with people.