Right on, Chris Pine!

A bit on how and why big stars take on roles in smaller indies.

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The Kidnapping of Arabella, the second directorial feature from Carolina Cavalli (she also co-wrote Fremont, which was one of my favorite films of 2023), is a weird little Italian indie about a young woman who abducts a young girl in the parking lot of a Taco King because she believes, thanks to holes in time and space, that the girl is her younger self. It stars Benedetta Porcaroli as the young woman and Lucrezia Guglielmino as the young girl… and also Chris Pine as the girl’s father, a self-absorbed Italian writer consumed with his jealousy of Jonathan Franzen.

Chris Pine in The Kidnapping of Arabella.

When I first watched the film, I went in blind, and Pine’s appearance came as a surprise. He is dressed in a Guido Anselmi-esque suit, with long Nick Cave hair and a thick greying goatee, and he is speaking fluent Italian. I squinted, Is that… Chris Pine?

Whenever I see a star of Pine’s stature in a small indie from a director who’s not yet a household name I wonder, How did that happen?

On Friday, I moderated a post-screening Q&A with Cavalli and Pine, and I got to ask them.

Cavalli explained that as she was prepping the film, she got word that Pine knew Italian and was interested in acting in an Italian movie. She sent the script to him, he read it, liked it, they met, and they hit it off.

Pine acted as though it was a no-brainer — staying in Italy, working European hours, having material that resonated with him, a director he vibed with, a role that wasn’t a massive time commitment. What more could you want?

It was a good reminder that there are a lot of top stars who are looking for opportunities to flex new muscles and do work that excites them, and that if you catch them at the right time and provide the right experience, they might just sign on to your little indie, no matter the budget. (Note: I have no idea what Pine was paid or how much it cost to put him up and accommodate him throughout the film.)

Generally, my hunch is that the biggest obstacle to this happening more frequently is agents, who tend to be foremost concerned with their clients always get paid top dollar, working on the most high profile films, and being treated like royalty. (Though not all agents! Some truly are invested in seeing their clients do cool work!) Getting around agents is a delicate dance that gets easier as directors, producers, etc. make connections and get a few laurels to their name.

But across the board, the pitch would probably be easier — and stars might seek out these sorts of films more often — if we celebrated them more vociferously when they do roll the dice. In my book, there’s not much a star can do that’s cooler than working on a project they do not in any way need to work on for the sheer love of the game. So, respect to Chris Pine! And hey, respect to Charli XCX too!

There are more opportunities to see The Kidnapping of Arabella — which I dug quite a bit! — at IFC this week.

Here’s what’s happening this week:

• Rockaway Film Festival’s first ever Movie Match Cup was a blast. Eight teams took to the sand pit at Arverne Cinema to compete at soccer for tickets to opening night of the festival… and wouldn’t you know it, Rockaway founder Sam Fleischner’s team won. Hmm, very fishy.

• Arab Women in the Arts showcase, an annual event that honors generations of Arab women who have excelled in and revolutionized all forms of artistic expression, will take place between July 29-August 2 in NYC (and online).

  Here are the screenings:

  • In the Battlefields @ Anthology Film Archives - Wednesday, July 29 at 7:00pm - $14

  • Parisienne @ Nitehawk (Williamsburg) - Thursday, July 30 at 6:45pm - $18

  • Four Shorts by Danielle Arbid @ Woodbine (Manhattan) - Friday, July 31 at 7:00pm - $12

  • A Lost Man @ Low Cinema - Saturday, August 1 at 8:00pm - $15

• Get tickets now for the big kickoff celebration screening of Modern Silent Shorts. It will be Aug 4th at 8pm at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. There will be additional screenings throughout the week on the Upper West Side, Montclair, Bellport, and Bannerman Island — a castle ruin in the Hudson River near Beacon. Learn more here.

• The Scout trailer just dropped. Catch the film at Film Forum September 25 and

  DTLA’s Alamo Drafthouse October 2.

• The Big Break just premiered at Fantasia. Right after the shoot, director Ian Farria chatted with Nothing Bogus. Read it here.

• There’s apparently no time of day or night that people will not go see The Odyssey in IMAX.

• Digger trailer dropped recently. It’s hard to remember a movie that was so thirsty to get its star an Oscar. Do we think this thing is going to be good?

• Emmet Foley is looking for writers with strong, original voices for an upcoming cartoon pilot. Experience with animation preferred. If interested, email ewwetfoley@gmail.com with a brief sample.

• ActorRise, a searchable database of 7,500+ monologues (plain-English search like “comedic woman under 2 minutes,” plus an “Overdone” filter), is offering Nothing Bogus readers 3 months free with the code FOUNDER3.

• Get tickets now for Aidan Cronin’s The Birds Tell Me All There Is to Know which will be playing at Spectacle July 17, 22, 23, and 27.

• Eddy Frumpkin and William George-Louis’s All-Starrs series returns to Starr Barr in Brooklyn July 21 at 9:00 PM. Tickets are $10. They’ll be screening films from Oscar winner Jeff Reichert (American Factory) and Oscar-shortlisted producer Farihah Zaman (Ghosts of Sugarland), animator Leah Shore (Puss), experimental filmmaker James N. Kienitz Wilkins (The Misconceived and The Plagiarists), and emerging filmmakers Samuel Bianculli, Arielle Bordow, Tyler “T-Bone” Zonies, Kenna Fojas, and Yael Grunseit (Scratch Off).

• If you would like to list in a future issue, email nothingbogus1@gmail.com with the subject “Listing.” (It’s FREE!) Include your email and all relevant details (price, dates, etc.)

See also:

Does a Small Indie Need a Big Star?

Why Line Producing Is as Much a People Job as a Numbers Job

30 Future Stars