“Matthew McConaughey is to star in Sea of Trees, the new drama from Gus Van Sant,” reports Ben Beaumont-Thomas for the Guardian. “The film centers on a pair of men who travel to the Aokigahara forest in Japan, a popular location for suicides—but instead of killing themselves, their meeting prompts a reflective journey. Ken Watanabe, the Japanese actor known for his roles in Inception and Letters From Iwo Jima, will play the second man.”
Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs, shelved last summer due to lack of funding, has been revived, reports Cain Rodriguez at the Playlist. “The cast will remain the same for the Trier and Eskil Vogt-scripted drama that will revolve around a late war photographer played by [Isabelle] Huppert, whose husband and two sons discover a secret about her past as a retrospective of her work is being put together.” Also starring: Jesse Eisenberg and Gabriel Byrne.
“Tom Hiddleston is to play the lead role in Jeremy Thomas-produced High-Rise,” reports Andreas Wiseman for Screen Daily. “Ben Wheatley will direct Amy Jump’s adaptation of JG Ballard’s classic British thriller.”
Barry Levinson is set to direct Al Pacino, Dianne Wiest, and Greta Gerwig in The Humbling, reports Taylor Lindsay at Indiewire. “An aging suicidal actor, a half-his-age lesbian, a secluded upstate country house, and a chaotic affair—it’s got all the elements for a riveting unconventional drama.”
“Worldview Entertainment has come on to fully finance the A Dazzling Display of Splendor which Julie Delpy is writing and directing,” reports Variety‘s Justin Kroll. “The film is based on a story by Delpy and Stephen Hamel.”
The clip above is from Short Life, Long Death: The Making and Unmaking of On The Silver Globe. As Sam Tunningley writes at the Seventh Art, Andrzej Żuławski’s “unfinished sci-fi masterpiece went into production in 1977 but was halted by the studio—reportedly because they didn’t like all of the allusions to false prophecy and organized religion—and left with an unfortunate amount of gaping holes. The film was eventually released in 1988, with the director providing narration for all of the necessary information left out of the final release.” Mondo Vision is planning a release on DVD of both the film and the doc.
Anne Thompson reports that in Bleed for This, “to be written and directed by Boiler Room‘s Ben Younger and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, [Whiplash star Miles] Teller would play young boxer Vinny Panzienza, who has to recover from a terrible automobile accident. He is told he will never walk again, but fights his way back into the ring a year later with the help of trainer Kevin Rooney (Aaron Eckhart).”
“Ewan McGregor and Tye Sheridan (Mud) have signed to star in the indie drama Last Days in the Desert,” reports Variety‘s Dave McNary. “Rodrigo Garcia (Albert Nobbs) is directing from his own script with production starting this month in the Southern California desert. Ciaran Hinds and Ayelet Zurer will portray the parents of Sheridan’s character.”
Also: Alejandro Amenabar will direct Emma Watson and Ethan Hawke in Regression, “about a man who has no memory of sexually abusing his daughter, despite charges against him, and who may be part of a nationwide conspiracy.”
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