If you had Matt Dillon teaming up with Lars Von Trier in your Mad Libs pool, congratulations! The actor will play a serial killer in Von Trier’s next film, The House That Jack Built.
According to the Deadline report, no matter how much this sounds like it’s a straight up Jack the Ripper movie, it isn’t. Not totally.
“The House That Jack Built follows the highly intelligent Jack over a span of 12 years and introduces the murders that define Jack’s development as a serial killer. We experience the story from Jack’s point of view, while he postulates each murder is an artwork in itself. As the inevitable police intervention is drawing nearer, he is taking greater and greater risks in his attempt to create the ultimate artwork.”
This sounds a lot like Jack the Ripper, but then there’s the addition of a mysterious character named Verge, which will be played by Bruno Ganz. Verge “engages Jack in a recurring conversation about his actions and thoughts.” So, kinda like William Hurt’s imaginary friend character to Kevin Costner’s Mr. Brooks? Maybe. He could be a real person but it sure doesn’t sound that way.
The main thing here is that Matt Dillon is back from wherever he’s been. The guy is so underused and has had an interesting career playing seedy characters and scumbags. This looks like the next level of seedy scumminess, and he and Von Trier make an interesting duo.
There’s no release date for The House That Jack Built yet, so stay tuned for updates.
