Professor of Professional Practice Ramin Bahrani '96 has started production on his new film, Vegas: A Love Story. Oscar-nominee Bahrani is both a co-writer and director on the project.
Vegas: A Love Story follows Dillon, a graphic designer living out of her car, who falls for Freddy, a welder and single father. When her ex, Ryder, returns, he threatens to unravel their romance while Freddy's in-laws try to protect their grandson.
Bahrani shared with Deadline that he "spent over a year in Las Vegas to write and prepare this film, a story about people living close to the edge, who don’t believe they deserve love, and find it anyway."
The cast features heavy hitters including Maika Monroe, Brandon Sklenar, Paul Dano, Judy Greer, and Michael Shannon. Bahrani told Deadline that, "when you have an ensemble this extraordinary then the film can grow from the inside out, revealing itself through the process."
He also shared, "a bittersweet thanks to my friend and former producer, the late Kevin Turen for connecting me with producer Jason Michael Berman, who has believed in my vision from the very start, and to Andrea Bucko and all my incredible producers and executive producers for supporting me." The producers on the film have called it Bahrani's "most commercial film to date."
Academy Award, BAFTA, WGA and Emmy nominee Bahrani is the Iranian-American writer, director, and producer of such films as Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, Goodbye Solo, 99 Homes, The White Tiger and his debut feature documentary, 2nd Chance. His films have won numerous awards around the globe at festivals such as Venice, Cannes and London. For television, Bahrani has directed several TV pilots for studios like USA and Apple. Film critic Roger Ebert proclaimed Bahrani as "the director of the decade" in 2010. Bahrani is a Guggenheim Fellowship winner and his cinematic oeuvre is housed in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. His latest short documentary premiered at Telluride. As producer, Bahrani’s films include Alex Camilleri’s Sundance and Spirit-award-winning Maltese debut feature Luzzu, Alexandre Moratto’s Spirit-award-winning Brazilian debut feature, Socrates and his Venice-award-winning 7 Prisoners, Saim Sadiq’s Cannes and Spirit-award-winning Pakistani debut Joyland, Angus MacLachlan’s Sundance premiere A Little Prayer, and Academy Award-nominated Joshua Oppenheimer’s debut fiction film, The End.
