Dakota Fanning and Jake Johnson on Their New “Punk Rock” Pic at SXSW
When Jake Johnson and longtime collaborator Joe Swanberg decided to embark on another film together, they knew one thing right away: They did not want to do it in Chicago. “We wanted it to feel different and like we were growing up,” says Johnson, who first starred in Swanberg’s Windy City-set Drinking Buddies in 2013. The result is The Sun Never Sets, an Anchorage, Alaska, dramedy about a woman caught between her divorced-with-children boyfriend (Johnson) and an ex (Cory Michael Smith) who recently moved back to town. They eventually tapped Dakota Fanning for the lead role in what Johnson describes as Swanberg’s “most mature movie yet.” The two stars talk with THR about their new project, which will premiere as a sales title (UTA) at SXSW. What was the first conversation about this movie like? JAKE JOHNSON Joe called me up and said he had an idea based off his real life that could work for a movie. We started fleshing it out, and then my agent at UTA suggested Dakota, and we both freaked …
