After a long early career as a hey-it’s-that-guy character actor, Michael Shannon (REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, HBO’s BOARDWALK EMPIRE) is fast becoming one of the most recognizable faces in big-budget Hollywood films and more restrained indie fair alike, known for a performance style that’s as measured as it is volatile. A spooky, hallowed intensity courses through him any time he’s on screen, but it’s especially appropriate in TAKE SHELTER, where he plays a sombre, blue-collar family man plagued by vivid nightmares full of apocalyptic imagery. At first, he tries to hide the dreams from his devoted wife and hearing-impaired daughter, but he’s soon overwhelmed, becoming obsessed with building an end-of-days survival shelter on the family property. But with a family history of mental illness, Shannon’s young father may be building his foxhole to protect his family from the coming storm – or he may be building it to protect them from himself.
The last collaboration between Shannon and writer-director Jeff Nichols was 2007’s critically-lauded SHOTGUN STORIES, which chronicled the feud between half brothers in the cotton fields of Southern Arkansas. TAKE SHELTER debuted at the Sundance Film Festival last year to similar acclaim.
Countries
United States- Festivals
- Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2011
Official Selection Cannes 2011 - Director
- Jeff Nichol
- Executive Producer
- Richard Rothfeld, Chris Perot, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos
- Producer
- Kevin Flanigan
- Screenwriter
- Jeff Nichol
- Cinematographer
- Adam Stone
- Editor
- Parke Greg
- Cast
- Michael Shannon
Jessica Chastain
Kathy Baker