Though a few of the projects in today’s batch have indeed been announced since the string of “In the Works” roundups rolled out during Cannes (May 17, 20, and 23), we’re focusing primarily here on further details on films we’ve heard about. For example, the Playlist‘s Jessica Kiang gets James Gray talking at considerable length about the sci-fi project he’s working on: “NASA has made a miscalculation about one of its astronauts, who cannot handle deep space. So the idea is a kind of mental breakdown in space, and to do it almost like Apollo footage: incredibly realistic—so no sound in space, obviously—and to do it distinguishing itself with the idea that, in a way, human beings need the earth.” He’s got about 400 pages of research and a treatment, so he’s ready to spend about four weeks writing. (Adrianflux) Then, the rewrite; and he hopes to be shopping the screenplay by early fall.
Though the film won’t begin shooting until October, the Weinstein Company has already taken US rights for Todd Haynes’s Carol, reports Leo Barraclough in Variety: “Phyllis Nagy’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel will star Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska.” That novel, originally published as The Price of Salt, made Highsmith “notorious,” notes the Wikipedia entry dryly, “due to the story’s lesbian content and happy ending, the latter having been unprecedented in homosexual fiction.”
For the New Republic, Michael Schaffer‘s been reading Young Il Kim’s screenplay for Rodham, the Hillary Clinton biopic that James Ponsoldt has signed on to direct. He finds that “almost as interesting as the depictions of the Clintons’ embryonic dysfunction is the succession of political notables who traipse through the 117-page draft… The movie may apply significant creative embroidery to history, but the cast of minor characters offers plenty to geek out over. Who wins and who loses? A rundown.” Meantime, HitFix‘s Kristopher Tapley reports that Jessica Chastain, Scarlett Johansson, Amanda Seyfried, and Reese Witherspoon are all vying for the lead.
Steven Soderbergh “is in talks to team with Clive Owen on The Knick, a period series set in New York in 1900,” reports Deadline‘s Mike Fleming Jr. “I’m told that he and Owen will set this series at Cinemax, which will give him a 10-episode season commitment.” Meantime, at Slant, take a look at the T-shirts Steven Soderbergh’s selling at his new site, Extension 765, each sporting a movie reference ranging from the very obvious to the very obscure.
For TheWrap, Jeff Sneider reports that Anton Corbijn (Control) is “attached to direct” Life: “Set in 1955 before the premiere of East of Eden, story follows photographer Dennis Stock, who meets undiscovered star James Dean at a party and quickly comes to believe that the free-spirited actor has the potential to personify a social revolution. Beset with guilt from being an estranged parent to his son, Dennis slowly emerges from behind his bravado, spending time with Jimmy in Los Angeles, New York, and Indiana, having been commissioned Life Magazine. The photos would capture a star in the making and provide Dennis with the self-belief to be an international renowned artist.”
As noted in the entry on J.C. Chandor’s All Is Lost with Robert Redford, the director’s lined up his third feature, A Most Violent Year. Deadline‘s Nancy Tartaglione: “The logline is being kept under wraps, but I’m told a group of A-listers are being approached and that there will be several in the movie.” And for Screen Daily, Geoffrey Macnab reports that Redford will direct one of the six films in Wim Wenders’s “3D/2D” project, Cathedrals of Culture.
“Jon Stewart has tapped Gael Garcia Bernal to star in his feature directorial debut Rosewater, TheWrap has learned…. Stewart is taking a 12-week hiatus from hosting Comedy Central’s The Daily Show in order to make the movie.”
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