Ryan Gosling casts Dark Knight Rises actor in directorial debut

How To Catch A Monster , the directorial debut of one Mr Ryan Gosling, has bagged itself a new cast member, with Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn coming aboard.

He joins Christina Hendricks in the modern-day fairytale, which is set to fuse fantasy and noir into a surreal concoction.

Gosling and Mendelsohn star together in Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond The Pines , so the newbie director has had the opportunity of scoping out his talents firsthand.

Mendelsohn isn’t a household name, but he’s a hell of a talented character actor. His most widely seen role was in The Dark Knight Rises , in which he played oily corporate type John Daggett.

As a testament to his chameleonic screen presence, Daggett was the polar opposite of the grimy drug addict Mendelsohn essayed in Killing Them Softly . His uniquely menacing performance as Pope in Animal Kingdom also made a huge impact.

How To Catch A Monster
will shoot next year, with an official release date yet to be confirmed.

Given Gosling’s intelligence when it comes to choosing roles, we're anticipating his first behind-the-camera work with particular excitement.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.