Entertainment

Joe Swanberg Sets Untitled Indie Rock Dramedy in Chicago with Shiloh Fernandez and Marc Senter

Jonah VillalbaPublished 3w ago2 min readBased on 1 source
Joe Swanberg Sets Untitled Indie Rock Dramedy in Chicago with Shiloh Fernandez and Marc Senter
Photo by VailFilmFest / CC BY-SA 4.0

Joe Swanberg will write, direct and edit an untitled 35mm dramedy set in Chicago, with Shiloh Fernandez and Marc Senter starring as the founders of an indie rock band called Fast Star, Variety reports.

The film's logline centres on two longtime indie rock musicians whose band gets an unexpected second wind after a younger, newly popular rapper samples one of their old songs. Fernandez plays Oliver Cross; Senter plays Lucas Hunter. Rounding out the cast are Kali Skrap, Karley Sciortino and Chris Tuttle.

The choice of 35mm film stock is worth noting. In an era when most independent productions shoot digitally to save on budget and accelerate post-production, shooting on physical film is a deliberate, textural choice — one that ties Swanberg to a craft tradition even as his stories stay rooted in contemporary, loosely structured character drama.

Kevin Veselka serves as cinematographer. The production is a Last Encore and Ghost Gang production in association with 3Links Productions. Producers are Marc Senter, Ashleigh Snead, Nathan Crooker, Joe Swanberg and Sean E. DeMott. Executive producers are Kathy Gitibin Parsa, Ariana Parsa, John Greenberg, Ray Blanchard and Anthony Killough.

Swanberg's most recent film, The Sun Never Sets, stars Dakota Fanning and Jake Johnson and debuted at SXSW before a theatrical release from Independent Film Company and Sapan Studio. His earlier credits include Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas, Digging for Fire and the Netflix anthology series Easy — a body of work that established him as a fixture of the American independent scene, known for improvisational performances and closely observed relationship dynamics.

For Fernandez, the role adds to a résumé that spans The Odyssey, The Basics of Philosophy and Evil Dead. Senter's credits include Old Man, The Lost and Red, White & Blue. Fernandez is repped by Jason Weinberg and Steven Nossokoff at Untitled Entertainment.

No release date has been announced.

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