High time to catch up with news of projects in the works, and we begin with a pairing of a director and a star that sounds just about right. “After receiving rave reviews for his work on Short Term 12, Destin Cretton may have landed his next big gig,” reports Variety‘s Justin Kroll. “He is in early negotiations to direct Lionsgate’s The Glass Castle, starring Jennifer Lawrence…. The story follows a young girl raised in dysfunctional family with an eccentric artist mother and an alcoholic father who would stir the the children’s imagination with hope as a distraction to their poverty.”
“There’s already one major film about the life of film critic Roger Ebert in the works,” notes Matt Singer at the Dissolve, “Steve James’s documentary Life Itself, and now, per a press release reprinted at /Film, there’s another: Russ & Roger Go Beyond, a fictional film about Ebert’s collaboration and friendship with director Russ Meyer during the making of their 1970 movie Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.” It might make for a fine future double bill with Joe Dante’s The Man With Kaleidoscope Eyes about the making of Roger Corman’s The Trip.
“For years, Abel Ferrara’s 1981 rape-revenge-rampage Ms. 45 has been out of print on American DVD, although last year, an all-region DVD from South Korea offering a cut-down version was made available,” writes Vadim Rizov, also at the Dissolve. “Now, Drafthouse Films has announced its acquisition of rights to the film, which will be reissued theatrically in December before coming to North American DVD and Blu-ray for the first time.”
“Your Kickstarter Joint Just Wrapped At 936 Pm Tonight In 16 Days,” tweeted Spike Lee on Saturday. “Thank You.” As Paula Bernstein notes at Indiewire, Lee’s described Da Blood of Jesus as a story about humans addicted to blood. “Funny, Sexy and Bloody. A new kind of love story (and not a remake of Blacula).”
“Fox Searchlight and Alexander Payne are in talks to next team on The Judge’s Will,” reports Deadline‘s Mike Fleming Jr. It’ll be based on the last short story Ruth Prawer Jhabvala saw published in the New Yorker. And: “Nicole Kidman will star in and produce an adaptation of The Silent Wife, the summer literary breakout novel by A.S.A. Harrison.”
“There’s a bidding war heating up between Hollywood studios over the rights to bring Glenn Greenwald‘s forthcoming tell-all book about the Edward Snowden affair to the big screen.” Conner Simpson reports for the Atlantic Wire.
TheWrap‘s Jeff Sneider reports that Bill Murray is in talks to join Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Danny McBride, Alec Baldwin, and Jay Baruchel in Cameron Crowe’s as-yet-untitled film about “a defense contractor [Cooper] who’s assigned to oversee the launch of a weapons satellite from Hawaii, where he falls for an Air Force pilot (Emma Stone). With the help of mystical island forces, they team up to scuttle the launch.”
Xavier Dolan “has reteamed with Anne Dorval (I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats, Laurence Anyways) and Suzanne Clément (I Killed My Mother, Laurence Anyways) along with Antoine-Olivier Pilon for Mommy,” reports the Playlist‘s Kevin Jagernauth. “Plot details are a bit thin, but for now we know that it will tell the story of a mother who takes custody of a child with a dark past.”
77-year-old Im Kwon-Taek will begin shooting his 102nd film, an adaptation of Kim Hoon’s novel Hwajang, in December, reports Relaxnews.
Kenneth Lonergan will adapt E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End as a mini-series for the BBC, reports Deadline‘s Nancy Tartaglione.
James Marsh will direct Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Eddie Redmayne, and Felicity Jones in The Theory of Everything, the story of the relationship between Stephen Hawking and Jane Wilde. Variety‘s Leo Barraclough has more.
“Helen Mirren is embarking on The Hundred-Foot Journey with director Lasse Hallström and producers Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey,” reports Dave Lewis at HitFix. And Emma Watson “is reuniting with her The Perks of Being a Wallflower director Stephen Chbosky for the 20th Century Fox film While We’re Young, a spin on the timeless age-swapping subgenre.”
And finally for now, Twitch‘s Todd Brown has news of a project that never got beyond the brainstorming stage but certainly deserves mention here nonetheless. Seems Stanley Kubrick was considering a sequel to Dr. Strangelove and was hoping that Terry Gilliam might direct it.
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