With “Dream Scenario,” Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli (“Sick of Myself,” “Drib”) continues his thematic preoccupations with envy, sudden fame, marketing and reversals of fortune. Working in English with an American studio and a Hollywood star onboard, his work readily invites comparisons with the high- concept ethos of Charlie Kaufman.
Nicolas Cage and a few other cast members surprisingly took the stage at the film’s world premiere on Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival, where actors have been largely absent amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. The movie’s studio, A24, has signed the interim SAG agreement.
Cage, who memorably portrayed Kaufman (and his fictional twin) in the Kaufman-penned “Adaptation,” similarly deglamorizes himself here to play Paul Matthews, college ethology professor.