Netflix and Likely Story have secured the main cast for their collaborative production The Land of Steady Habits, written and to be directed by Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said). According to Deadline, the top-bill cast will include Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Thomas Mann (Me and Earl and The Dying Girl), and Edie Falco (TV’s Nurse Jackie).
The film will center on Anders Hill, a man in his fifties who has grown tired of his life in “the land of steady habit,” otherwise known as the collection of affluent neighborhoods that line the commuter rail line in Connecticut. After he pays off his son’s (Mann) college tuition, he packs up, leaves his wife (Falco), and moves to a condo to make a fresh start. There he waits with little avail for his newfound freedom to work its magic on his life, leading him to some difficult and heartbreaking truths about his past and present.
Holofcener is the filmmaker behind the late James Gandolfini and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss romantic drama Enough Said. Her other credits include the Catherine Keener-led Friends with Money and an adaptation of Every Secret Thing starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, and Dakota Fanning.
Mendelsohn is coming away from his sparkling debut as a Star Wars villain in Rogue One and is gearing up to play a couple more in Ready Player One and Robin Hood: Origins. Aside from a recent propensity for villainy, Mendelsohn also has a talent for vulnerability, apparent in films like Mississippi Grind or A Place Beyond the Pines, which will work well for this latest role. Mann, who had a breakout in 2015 with Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, will next appear in Brain On Fire with Chloe Moretz, in Kong: Skull Island, and in Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete. Falco can now be seen in the Robert De Niro dramedy The Comedian, and soon in Gillian Robespierre’s Landline.