In 2009 Canadian director Dylan Akio Smith shot a twelve minute short titled simply Big Head. The story of a young boy with a big head - literally - the film was a dryly absurd commentary on body image and the pressures placed on children at increasingly young ages to conform to a standard of beauty. It's smart and funny and impeccably well crafted and one of my very favorite films of any length of that year. Smith, bluntly, is a huge talent just waiting to be discovered.
Perhaps Doppelganger Paul will be the film that makes that happen.
Smith co-directs his second feature with writer Kris Elgstrand, with the duo riding a premise sure to draw comparisons to Charlie Kaufman. See? There's one now! But given Smith's particular skill set that's the right ground for the duo to be working. Here's the official synopsis:
Following a near-death experience, Karl comes to believe that Paul is his doppelganger. When Karl finally reveals himself to Paul, a unique and troubled relationship begins to form, a relationship that is severely tested when Karl grants Paul the privilege of reading his 20, 000 page manuscript, A BOOK ABOUT HOW MUCH I HATE MYSELF. When Karl's book is published 17 months later in a vastly edited version credited to two other author / doppelgangers, Karl and Paul hit the road to confront the plagiarists but end up confronting themselves instead.
Tygh Runyan, Brad Dryborough, Ben Cotton and Matty Finochio star. With the film announced as part of TIFF 2011 a new trio of images has appeared in the gallery below.