Elda Ferri and Allen Bain announced today the wrap of principal photography on Director Roberto Faenza's "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You" based on Peter Cameron's award-winning novel of the same name. Praised by critics and readers alike, Cameron's 2007 novel has been favorably compared to "The Catcher in the Rye."
A heartfelt New York comedy, the film was shot entirely in New York and stars Toby Regbo ("Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows") in his first lead role as well as veteran actors Marcia Gay Harden, Peter Gallagher, Ellen Burstyn and Stephen Lang and features Deborah Ann Woll ("True Blood"), Aubrey Plaza ("Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World") and Lucy Liu.
Director Faenza is best known for his Italian works including the award-winning films "Come Into the Light" and "The Soul Keeper." Written by Faenza, Cameron and Dahlia Heyman, "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You" is produced by Elda Ferri ("Life is Beautiful") and IFP Producer to Watch recipient Allen Bain, and Executive Produced by Rose Ganguzza ("Margin Call," "The Romantics"), Academy Award- winning costume designer Milena Canonera, and Four of a Kind CEO Ron Stein ("The Kids Are All Right," "The Romantics," "Meskada").
"Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You" is a funny and tender film about James Sveck (Regbo), a vulnerable teenager with a deep appreciation for the world and no idea how to live in it. James is the child of divorced parents living in Manhattan (Harden and Gallagher). While his estranged parents may be better served examining their own lives, they seem more content conspiring to guide him in a more "normal" direction.
James, however, rejects all the assumptions that govern the adult world around him, including the expectation that he will go college in the fall. Articulate, sensitive, and cynical, he would much prefer to move to an old house in the country and spend his life reading books and learning long forgotten trades.
Marjorie, James' mother, has just prematurely returned from her honeymoon with compulsive gambler, MR. Rogers (Stephen Lang), in what appears to be her third failed marriage. James' father, Paul, a successful lawyer, displays deep-seated insecurities by dating women half his age.
James' sister, Gillian (Deborah Ann Woll), on the other hand, dates men twice her age in an attempt to stand out amongst this already motley cast of characters.
Surrounded by a family he cannot relate to, James can confide only in his enigmatic and benevolent grandmother Nanette (Ellen Burstyn) and eventually his athletic and idiosyncratic life coach Rowena (Lucy Liu). He develops a stormy friendship with John (Gilbert Owuor), the well-groomed and articulate director of his mother's art gallery. With only months until College is set to begin and with all of these forces pulling him in divergent directions, this summer is set to change the course of James' life forever.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
