Viggo Mortensen is Captain Fantastic

News from casting land, and it's sure fantastic (like, literally…it's in the title). Viggo Mortensen will star in the film Captain Fantastic , which sounds…awesome. Or fantastic. Your pick. The project, though it sounds like a big-budget superhero story, isn't quite that; it's an indie film about a father who has been living off the map with his six kids (eek, that's quite a bunch, don't you think?) in the Pacific Northwest Forests for a decade, and then decides, "Hey! Maybe it's about time that we head back into regular society?" Mortensen's character and his kids then must face the struggle of assimilating back into society after ten freakin' years of being wilderfolk (that's my word for folks who live in the wilderness).

It sounds pretty thought-provoking — think about what would happen if you had headed off into the woods back in 2004 and then decided to pop back into society today? YOU WOULDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT AN iPHONE WAS. Moreover, if you were born in the wilderness and grew up fishing with your hands, going to the seafood department in Whole Foods might prove to be a little socially challenging. And think of all of the HBO shows you'd have to catch up on!

But seriously, it's about human interaction and societal expectations! Deep stuff!

Writer and director Matt Ross told Deadline he was elated to have Mortensen on board: "Viggo Mortensen’s dedication to his craft and to the world of the story he’s telling have been an inspiration to me for years,” he said. “There is a depth to his art that I greatly admire. Any film he’s in is a film I want to see. He’s one of the greats. Getting to collaborate with him on Captain Fantastic is quite literally the best thing that’s happened to me since my wife asked me to marry her.”

Production is scheduled to begin this summer, so no word yet on when this pretty fantastic (yes, I did it again) sounding movie will come out. Maybe we should all go hide out in the woods for ten years and then come back to watch it so we can really relate…or…we can let Mortensen's powerful acting take us on this journey instead, and we can live vicariously through it…'cause living in the forests for a decade is, you know, kinda on the intense side.