2 Jacks Heads To DVD On Feb. 11 Courtesy Of Breaking Glass Pictures

Breaking Glass Pictures has tabbed Feb. 11 as the DVD debut date for writer/director Bernard Rose’s 2 Jacks, a generational tale about the inner-workings of show business in Hollywood with a Tolstoy twist.

The knee-jerk is: Wow, what a cast Rose has assembled for this indie production.  It looks to be a budget-buster.

Danny Huston (son of John Huston and grandson of Walter Huston and accomplished actor in his own right — 21 Grams, The Constant Gardener, The Proposition, etc.) and Jack Huston (Danny’s nephew, who is perhaps best known as Richard Harrow in the Boardwalk Empire cable series — although you might not recognize him here … also in American Hustle, which is just opening) as father and son for starters.

Add in Jacqueline Bisset and Sienna Miller, who play the same character at different points in time, plus Billy Zane, Richard Portnow, Jamie Harris (son of Richard Harris) and the exotic Izabella Miko (among others) and you begin to suspect that they are friends and friends-of-friends who joined the production based on Rose’s clever script adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic 1856 short story, “Two Hussars.”

If this isn’t enough to attract you to this Breaking Glass Pictures release, then simply check out the producer credits and therein could be the secret as to how this indie was assembled.   

Actress-turned-film producer Julia Verdin, who is building quite the resume as a filmmaker, reached out, networked and did what any good producer would do … she begged, she cajoled and she said “please.”   She delivered a winner.

The opening introduces us to Danny Huston as Jack Hussar, Sr., a filmmaker with a track record who has seen better days — the gambling, drinking and womanizing have all taken a toll.  He’s on the hustle to make a new film, but lacks the financing and some of his connections have distinctly turned cold (bridges burned, so to speak).   Through all of this he still manages to make time for the seduction of a young beauty named Diana (Sienna Miller), which becomes an important plot element. 

After this sequence is played out, the film jumps ahead some 20 years and we are introduced to his son, Jack Hussar, Jr. (Jack Huston), who is trying to follow in his father’s footsteps, but we soon suspect that he may have the intelligence, but not the savoir-faire to accomplish what his father did.

After all, getting a film made in Hollywood is, and always has been, one part talent and one part “the art of the deal.”   2 Jacks focuses, quite nicely, on the latter.

Bonus features on the 2 Jacks DVD release include a behind-the-scenes production featurette and footage selected from various film festival Q&A sessions.