Several years ago, I meandered into a bookstore, as is my wont, and found a novel that I fell in love with.  It is now being made by the brilliant Scottish director Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher) as a feature film. We Need To Talk About Kevin is emotional, disturbing, engaging book written by the brilliant Lionel Shriver and the basis for Ramsay’s film of the same name.

It tells the story of Eva Khatchadourian, the mother of the titular Kevin. In epistolary form, she writes letters to her husband, recounting Kevin’s childhood as she attempts to figure out what went wrong and how he got the way he is.  It investigates the power and responsibility of parents and the inborn, unchangeable side of a human’s soul.

To complement and fully portray such a powerful tale, you need an all star cast – one that can be both physically and emotionally open and engaging.  And holy smokes, did they succeed. Tilda Swinton, most recently seen in the stunning I Am Love is Eva, John C Reilly plays her estranged husband while the relatively unknown Ezra Miller plays the destructive, vindictive and manipulative Kevin.  While Swinton and Reilly are both undeniably talented and will bring a lot to each of their roles, it is the haunting Miller that I look most forward to.  He may not be known to you yet, but I am confident that he will be soon.  Currently, he is a reoccurring guest star on the USA’s Royal Pains but I prize him most for his stunnign and riveting performance in After School – where he once again played a seriously disturbed boy.

The cast has been shooting in Connecticut for the last few months and is already beginning to generate a lot of media and festival buzz. It is currently in post production.  Just recently, the film released a statement regarding developments in the soundtrack.  Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has signed on to compose the soundtrack. This is not his first film, however – that was the minimalistic score for Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.

We Need To Talk About Kevin will be released in theatres in late 2011. In the meantime, pick up the book!