First-Time Oscar Nominees Kirsten Dunst & Kodi Smit-McPhee On ‘The Power Of The Dog’s “Very Rare” Resonance, Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War,’ Baz Luhrmann’s Upcoming Elvis Pic & More
deadline.comOn Tuesday, The Power of the Dog’s Kirsten Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee earned their first Oscar nominations for their turns in the Jane Campion film, speaking with Deadline about the film’s stellar reception and upcoming projects including the action epic Civil War, which the former is starring in for Alex Garland, and the Untitled Elvis Presley Project from Baz Luhrmann in which the latter shot a role.While Dunst wouldn’t disclose specifics as to the story of Civil War, she shared that the film will enter production in Atlanta in March.
And while Smit-McPhee admits he only has “a small part” in Luhrmann’s Elvis film, he said he took away from it the same “reward of being challenged” that he had on The Power of the Dog.Dunst said that going forward, she’d “like to work with Paul Thomas Anderson,” with Smit-McPhee expressing an interest in directing at some stage of his career. “I’m not in any rush, by any means, because I’ve seen the weight of the world is on directors’ shoulders and the amount of stress they go through,” he said. “It’s something that I greatly admire, but absolutely along the way, I always have treated myself as a student of the universe, whether it’s in my career or in my personal life.
So, I act as like a sponge on set, watching what the cinematographer is doing, what the director is doing and putting it in my back pocket to hopefully utilize one day to express my own stories.”The Power of the Dog is Western drama based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name.
The Netflix film centers on Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch), a charismatic rancher in 1925 Montana that inspires fear and awe in those around him.
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