Jason Bateman's Dramatic Turn in 'Disconnect'
Funnyman Jason Bateman takes a serious turn in Henry Alex Rubin's Disconnect, a drama/thriller centered on a group of people searching for human connection in today's technology-filled world.
"I was attracted to it because it wasn't comedy -- the fact that it was a good script and good people involved is icing on the cake -- but it's nice to do drama when you do so much comedy," Bateman says about the big change of pace. " ... It's nice to do something that's getting so much respect."
"It's a drama/thriller about what it's like living in this digital age we are in right now," his co-star Paula Patton says about the film. " ... It's really a commentary on human beings who haven't changed one bit, but how we're dealing in this age and how it's affecting us."
Patton says that Oscar-nominated director Rubin -- and of course, the fact that handsome True Blood star Alexander Skarsgard would be playing her husband -- were all solid reasons that attracted her to the role of Cindy Hull.
"I found out that Henry Alex Rubin -- a director I had already watched in Murderball -- was going to direct it and that Alex Skarsgard was going to play my husband if I chose to do it; I thought, what great company, couldn't be a better director to do this type of film, and I was on board immediately."
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Skarsgard also says that it was Rubin and his "gut" that attracted him to the film.
"There was just something about Henry -- it's always a gut feeling isn't it when you decide whether or not you want to do something?," he muses. "And with Henry I knew he was an amazing documentary filmmaker, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're a great narrative filmmaker, but it was just a gut feeling. ... It was just a feeling like, this is someone I want to spend a couple of weeks in the trenches with."
But one thing he makes clear is that the film is not anti-Internet.
"I always want to stress that it's not an anti-Internet film. It's not didactic. That's what I thought was so brilliant about the script -- it wasn't preachy."
Disconnect hits theaters April 12, 2013.