*Stanley Kubrick - 3 Unmade Projects Getting The Greenlight April 2010

[u2roolz]

Cinematical News Link

 

Like many of us, Stanley Kubrick was something of a pack rat, and not overly fond of organization. So it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that, amid the reportedly chaotic hodge-podge of the director's effects, undiscovered treasures are buried. One such treasure: a single copy of a film treatment titled Lunatic at Large, written in the late 1950's by the briliiant pulp author Jim Thompson at Kubrick's behest. And now that film is finally being produced, with Production Weekly reporting that Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson are attached.

 

As reported in the New York Times in 2006, Kubrick's son-in-law, Philip Hobbs, found the 80-page treatment in 1999 -- described as a dark mystery about an escaped axe-murderer -- while archiving Kubrick's papers. "When Stanley died, he left behind lots of paperwork," Hobbs told the NYT. "We ended up going through trunks of it, and one day we came across 'Lunatic at Large.' I knew what it was right away, because I remember Stanley talking about 'Lunatic.' He was always saying he wished he knew where it was, because it was such a great idea."

 

Thompson, author of now-classic pulp works like The Grifters and The Killer Inside Me, worked with Kubrick on 1956's The Killing. The writer was deeply disappointed that the project fell apart due to Kubrick's firing from One-Eyed Jacks, followed by his involvement directing Spartacus and Lolita. Thompson died in 1977, never seeing the swell of interest in his work that came in the 1990's.

 

The 2006 script adaptation was described by the NYT:

His finished screenplay has the feel of authentic Thompsonian pulpiness. Set in New York in 1956, it tells the story of Johnnie Sheppard, a former carnival worker with serious anger-management issues, and Joyce, a nervous, attractive barfly he picks up in a Hopperesque tavern scene. There's a newsboy who flashes a portentous headline, a car chase over a railroad crossing with a train bearing down, and a romantic interlude in a spooky, deserted mountain lodge.

The great set piece is a nighttime carnival sequence in which Joyce, lost and afraid, wanders among the tents and encounters a sideshow's worth of familiar carnie types: the Alligator Man, the Mule-Faced Woman, the Midget Monkey Girl, the Human Blockhead, with the inevitable noggin full of nails.

 

No details are available right now as to how many hands have handled the screenplay since then, or the current director. But this is one project to keep an eye on.

 

Edit: (this is me speaking) I've heard both Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson's names tossed around as possible directors. I'd like to throw into the hat Duncan Jones. His 1st film Moon reminded me a lot of 2001 with it's amazing old-school special effects. He's worked with Sam Rockwell before obviously. I'd like to see what type of organic looking sensibilities he'd bring to this project.

 

I doubt Marty goes after this after he just did Shutter Island, but that was really successful so you never know. Also, I could see the Coen Brothers or David Lynch doing something like this.

[bjorn_skurj]

I really liked Moon so I will second you on Duncan Jones. I hope they keep the setting in 1956.

[u2roolz]

Some more news regarding the 1st project that I mentioned and now one more feature film and a tv show.

Cinematical Link April 22, 2010

The late Oscar-winning director Stanley Kubrick held high esteem for years while he was still alive, and now that he has since passed, Hollywood isn’t ready to let his genius slip away. Philco Films is prepping three properties based on scripts by Kubrick, according to Screen Daily, and they seem to reflect the late film-maker’s varied career. The first will be a large-scale Civil War film entitled Downslope. The second, Lunatic At Large, will star Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell, and the third is a TV series called God Fearing Man that revolves around a famous bank robber in the early 20th century.

 

Philco Films isn’t aiming low with any of these properties either, as they are targeting A-list casts and crew to bring these three pieces to life. For a more detailed look at each project and the plans behind them, hit the jump.

 

 

The staple of the three upcoming properties is the Civil War drama, Downslope. Philco will give the film a $100 million budget to work with and are building from the ground up. The script, which Kubrick based on a short story by historian Shelby Foote, follows John Singleton Mosby’s famous Confederate cavalry known as Mosby’s Rangers, and will reportedly involves spies and toe the line between both sides of the war.

 

“We are approaching A-list directors for the project because it is an A-list script,” says Steven Lanning, co-founder of Philco Films, while speaking with Screen Daily. While they are shooting for an A-list cast as well, he understands that they “need the director first.”

 

Although America would seem to be the obvious spot for shooting, the plan is to shoot next year in Europe instead. Part of the reasoning is that the historic battlegrounds in which the period piece will focus on look vastly different today, but also because they are receiving heavy interest from European financiers.

 

The next project on the list is Lunatic At Large, which has a lengthy history and no director yet. The script, which was adapted by pulp writer Jim Thompson back in the 1950s under Kubrick’s direction, got buried after Kubrick took over directing duties on Spartacus. The film, which will star Johansson and Rockwell, has this description:

 

“The story of an ex-carnival worker and a barfly who strike up a relationship - although there are suspicions that one of them is an escapee from a mental asylum.”

 

Finally, there is the $12 million TV series God Fearing Man, which is set to begin production sometime this year. The show will follow Herbert Emerson Wilson, a famous safecracker who wrote his own book, I Stole $16,000,000. Wilson is an interesting character, and the title perhaps refers to the fact that he was a former Baptist minister. While Philco has yet to tab a cast or crew, they are eyeing Germany as a potential shooting location due to tax breaks.

 

Pulling all of these projects together is the man adapting the scripts for each: Stephen R. Clarke, who might have limited experience, has pedigree to his name. His father, Roy Clarke, is a well-known British sitcom writer (Last of the Summer Wine) who has also dabbled in film (A Foreign Field). Perhaps the pedigree will shine through, as Stephen has been given a grand opportunity to show what he can do.

[PopTodd]

I loved The Killing, so I am really looking forward to this.