Screen Andreas Wiseman reports that Yorgos Lanthimos has begun shooting The Killing of a Sacred Deer with Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Raffey Cassidy, Sunny Suljic, Bill Camp—and this is the one that’s got Twitter twittering—Alicia Silverstone. “Lanthimos and his regular collaborator, Efthymis Filippou co-wrote the project in which Farrell stars as Steven, a charismatic surgeon forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart when the behavior of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.”
For Todd Haynes, Carter Burwell has scored Velvet Goldmine (1998), Mildred Pierce (2011), and Carol (2015), and he’s onboard for Wonderstruck, too, reports Elizabeth MacLeod at the Playlist. “Starring Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Oakes Fegley, Cory Michael Smith, and Tom Noonan, and based on Brian Selznick’s children’s novel Wonderstruck, the film traces the intertwined stories of two deaf children set fifty years apart. Both children wish their lives were different; one child dreams of a mysterious actress while the other yearns for the father he has never known.”
Speaking of directors and composers re-teaming, the Playlist‘s Kevin Jagernauth passes along word that Jóhann Jóhannsson will score Denis Villeneuve‘s Blade Runner sequel. With “Roger Deakins lensing, and Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Robin Wright, Dave Bautista, Ana de Armas, Sylvia Hoeks, Carla Juri, Mackenzie Davis, Barkhad Abdi, and Jared Leto among the cast, this has massive potential to be great (or misfire horribly).”
Sarah Paulson will play Geraldine Page in Ryan Murphy’s Feud, “the first season of which will focus on the livelong rivalry between Hollywood icons Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) and Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon),” reports Katie Rife at the AV Club. You may remember, too, that Catherine Zeta-Jones will be playing Olivia de Havilland.
Starting next month, Laurent Cantet will begin shooting L’atelier, reports Fabien Lemercier at Cineuropa. Co-written by Cantet and Robin Campillo, “the story is set in La Ciotat during the summer. Antoine (Matthieu Lucci) has agreed to take part in a writing workshop, where several young people are being integrated into the world of work by penning a noir fiction with the help of Olivia (Marina Foïs), a widely respected novelist. This writing task will force them to revisit the town’s industrial past and its dockyard that has been shut for the last 25 years—a whole rush of nostalgia that Antoine has no interest in. Feeling more closely connected to the anxieties of the modern world, the young man quickly starts rebelling against the group and against Olivia, who is simultaneously startled and drawn in by Antoine’s violent nature.”
Trailer for Kirsten Johnson‘s Cameraperson
Amazon is developing a TV series based on Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (2006), which in turn, of course, was based on Andrew Lau and Alan Mak‘s Infernal Affairs (2002), reports Deadline‘s Nellie Andreeva. It’ll be set in “present-day Chicago, amidst the shifting tides of warring ethnic drug gangs. In it, a young cop goes undercover to infiltrate a ruthless Latino gang, which simultaneously plants its own man in the police department.”
And from Deadline‘s Nancy Tartaglione: “The UK’s Channel 4 has ordered three new projects including contemporary comedy The Bisexual from Iranian-American filmmaker Desiree Akhavan; Irish period comedy Derry Girls, written by Indian Summers‘ Lisa McGee; and survival challenge, Mutiny…. The Bisexual is a look at the difference between dating men and women from the perspective of a person who finds herself doing both. The Girls alum and Appropriate Behavior writer/director plays New Yorker Leila who is feeling lost in London. Split from her girlfriend she moves in with a ‘stranger off the internet and discovers she’s swapped her luxe old life for a house-share with a British guy whose only other female ‘flat-mate was his mother. Their worlds collide in awkward and revealing ways as he becomes her unlikely wingman and helps her to navigate a new life dating men.”
“Nick Stoller and Francesca Delbanco’s Netflix comedy Friends from College has landed a boatload of actors including the trio of Keegan-Michael Key, Cobie Smulders, and Fred Savage,” reports Dino-Ray Ramos for the Tracking Board. “Annie Parisse, Nat Faxon, and Jae Suh Park are also joining the ensemble comedy from the Neighbors director and his wife/writing partner. As the title of the comedy suggests, the eight-episode series follows a group of friends who attended Harvard and are now facing down their 40s and experiencing a range of success, or lack thereof, professionally and domestically.”
“Melissa Leo will star in Charlene deGuzman’s low-budget film Unlovable, which is being funded with a Kickstarter campaign,” reports Variety‘s Dave McNary. DeGuzman developed the story “about a woman’s struggle with sex and love addiction” with Mark Duplass and Patton Oswalt is on board as an associate producer.
Also, “James Franco is developing three movies based on novels by crime fiction writer Tom Franklin—Smonk, Poachers, and Hell at the Breech.”
