Matt Ross, who directed “Captain Fantastic”, is actually primarily an actor and has appeared in films such as “American Psycho” (2000) and “In the Body of the Enemy” (1997), as well as series such as “American Horror Story” and “Silicon Valley” . After his debut film “28 Hotel Rooms” (2012), “Captain Fantastic” was the second work that he directed and for which he wrote the script himself. Matt Ross was able to engage Viggo Mortensen, who likes to appear in indie films, who became world famous for his role as Aragorn in “The Lord of the Rings” and who lived without a functioning electricity and water supply in the post-apocalyptic drama “The Road ”(2009) has already tested it on film. Frank Langella (Robot and Frank - Two Thieving Accomplices), Steve Zahn (Sahara - Adventure in the Desert) and Missi Pyle (Gone Girl - The Perfect Victim) were added to him as supporting actors.
“Captain Fantastic” is not a superhero, just a simple man who is actually called Ben (Viggo Mortensen). Ben is the father of no fewer than six very young children and lived with his daughters and sons in the forests of the Pacific Northwest in Washington state for many years. The family was able to survive there with the simplest means and as a self-sufficiency, far from the latest technology and the noise and speed of the rest of the world. Now Ben is returning from this unspoilt world to modern society. But if returning to civilization is an enormous challenge for him, reintegration is much more difficult for his children, because they have never known a life outside of the forest before.