Recently, some stills from Diablo Cody‘s directorial debut PARADISE gave us our first look at the flick starring Julianne Hough, Octavia Spencer and Russell Brand. The interest hinged on whether or not you had been a willing passenger on Cody’s slang scripted ride. Of course, there was also the interesting mix of cast which included the above mentioned and favorites like Nick Offerman and Holly Hunter.
If you were hoping to see Cody take a departure from the norm then I’m not sure this is the film that will display that. Hough’s character Lamb seems to be cut from the same quirky cloth as the rest of the leading ladies you’ve seen with the writer’s name attached. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. The trailer might be doing the film a great disservice by making it look like something that is destined to go straight to VOD and DVD. We see Hough as a girl brought up with strong religious beliefs until she is horribly scarred after an accident. She winds up questioning her faith and going off the deep end…well, she really only dips her feet in here. Of course, the best cure for rebelling against organized religion is Vegas. There she meets a bartender and a card dealer who help her do some sinful things written on a napkin. Check it out for yourself below.
PARADISE hits theaters on October 18th, 2013.
After a nearly fatal accident, 21-year-old Lamb Mannerheim (Julianne Hough) is beginning to realize that the world is much bigger than her small, God-fearing Montana town. Armed with a big, fat insurance payout and a checklist of untried sins, there’s only one place for her first taste of temptation…Las Vegas! And, with the help of a few new friends (Russell Brand and Octavia Spencer), Lamb embarks on an oddball odyssey of lost souls, broken faith and cheap cocktails…a true journey of the heart.