It's been another weak week for film news with only a couple of projects catching my eye, the first of which won't be see for at least another couple of years. I'm not completely sure why this is - are all the execs on Holiday right now? No need to dally though lets get right into:
In the Hand of Dante
We heard this week that Johnny Depp has found a director for the big screen adaptation of Nick Tosches' head scratching novel in the form of Julian Schnabel. Intertwining fictional and autobiographical accounts of the lives of Tosche, Dante and a mobster named Louis the novel focuses on a manuscript of The Divine Comedy that may or may not be the original version.
It sounds to me like a more literary version of Adaptation so I can't wait to see how the characters intersect and what direction the plot unfolds in. The pyjama wearing auteur has said the book is about everything which may not be strictly accurate but at least gives an idea of how ambitious the project will be.
Unfortunately this is a long way off being made, in a statement Schnabel said nothings been signed and Johnny just wants him to look at it and develop it over the next couple of years. I don't know but it sounds like Depp wants to have something interesting to dig out of his schedules at some point in the far off future (and not now when he's hopelessly busy with box office stinkers). Not that Schnabel has anything to worry about, after their brief but memorable collaboration on Before Night Falls (Depp plays a transvestite smuggler - below - in the 2000 Reinaldo Arenas biopic) I suspect they're both itching to get together again.
Read on for a sequel 20 years out of date and a round up of this weeks casting news.
Red Hook Summer
Appearing seemingly out of nowhere and only really a tweet and some investigative journalism is the news that Spike Lee is making a semi-sequel to his seminal 1989 movie Do the Right Thing (see poster below). It's a sequel in that he will return as the character of Mookie but not continuing the plot, although like the original movie the action will take place over a long hot summer. Obviously Lee decided to make a quick joint before seriously starting pre-production on his Old Boy remake, and I for one am far more interested in what he has to say with this.
Casting News
We may not have seen much excitement in the new films section of this weeks news, but at least the casting section sees plenty to write home about. The most interesting story was hearing Joaquin Pheonix is attached to the forthcoming Spike Jonze and Andy Kaufman collaboration. This is great news as it means Pheonix's career has somehow survived his I'm Still Here stunt and we also picked up the movie will be a political satire concerning world leaders planning future crises - sounds intriguing. Edward Norton is being considered for bad guy duties in The Bourne Legacy, the eclectic cast of He Loves Me is getting more interesting with Elliott Gould, Antonio Banderas and Steve Coogan signing on in support and further to last week Josh Brolin is being consider for the Old Boy remake.
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2 comments:
I like Schnabel's creativity--I especially loved "Before Night Falls"--and so the new one is intriguing.
I was very mixed about "Do The Right Thing" in its initial release...I have become more mellow about it in recent days. It is cinematically awesome, bit at the time I felt it simplistic. Wonder how Mookie has changed in 20+ years?
I think you're right about Schnabel, he's certainly visionary and capable of abstract creativity.
I really like Do the Right Thing, however I've always felt Mookie was the least rounded character, more of an audience surrogate than a true lead and revisiting the other characters on the block would be far more interesting.
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