Blue Valentine director can't get enough Ryan Gosling, also developing HBO series

By Sean O'Neal | December 2, 2010 | 8:27pm

Aux Features Film

Although Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance spent close to 12 years developing his somber portrait of a marriage in dissolution, he apparently just hasn’t had enough Ryan Gosling: His next project, The Place Beyond The Pines, will likely begin shooting next summer with Gosling in the lead—and since Cianfrance has said only that the film is “Jack London-inspired,” we’re going to assume that Gosling plays an extraordinarily laid-back Alsatian wolf dog. The Playlist actually squeezed out a few more details, with Cianfrance saying the film “is all about fathers and guns, and it has motorcycles and guns in it. One thing I wanted to do with Blue Valentine was to make a really violent film without guns in it. The next one will have guns, so it will be easier.” Shame. If only Cianfrance had made Blue Valentine a violent movie with guns, maybe it would have gotten that R rating.

But wait, that’s not all: Cianfrance is also reportedly developing a new TV show for HBO that he tells Vulture will “try to give new meaning to the word 'character development,'" despite the fact that those are two words. Considering the amount of rehearsal that went into developing the characters in Blue Valentine—including asking Gosling and Michelle Williams to actually live together like a real, sad married couple for a while—he’s probably very serious about that. Unfortunately, this new show will likely lack the crucial Gosling Factor. The Goslingness. That certain je ne sai Gosling.