1.) Universal has picked up an untitled sci-fi project with The Adjustment Bureau helmer George Nolfi attached to direct, produce and co-write with The Last Stand writer Andrew Knauer. The Adjustment Bureau is one of my favorite movies of recent years so I’ve been anxiously waiting to see what Nolfi would do next and while I wish we had more information, the rest of the details are being kept under wraps.
Nolfi and Knauer met while Nolfi was supervising the script for The Last Stand and was apparently so impressed with Knauer’s script that he made a pitch to collaborate on this new untitled project. Before making his directorial debut with The Adjustment Bureau, Nolfi worked on the scripts for several movies including Ocean’s Twelve and The Bourne Ultimatum. [THR]
2.) James Franco has been incredibly busy of late and will try to stay that way as he looks to direct and star in Beautiful People. The project is a biopic on charismatic playboy Jay Sebring, who was a hairstylist to the stars in the 1960s before he and his young movie star girlfriend Sharon Tate were killed by the Charles Manson Family. Franco recently wrapped his adaptations of William Faulkner‘s As I Lay Dying and Cormac McCarthy‘s Child of God. [Deadline]
3.) Mathieu Amalric (Quantum of Solace) has joined Roman Polanski‘s Venus in Fur, replacing the previously cast Louis Garrel. The film is based on David Ives‘ Tony-nominated two-person play, with Polanski’s wife Emmanuelle Seigner (Frantic) playing an actress who appears to be everything a filmmaker (Amalric) needs to make his new film. However, the balance of power soon begins to shift as the actress soon establishes dominance over the filmmaker. Production is now underway after a slight delay pushed back its intended November start. [Allocine]
4.) Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead, Rust and Bone) will face off in the period piece A Little Chaos, directed by Alan Rickman. The stars will play rival landscape gardeners who are both commissioned to create a fountain at Versailles by Louis XIV. Rickman has been talking about making the film as his follow-up to his debut film, 1997’s The Winter Guest, for years, but he’s taken his time scouting locations and fine-tuning the script.
It’s now set for a spring shoot, and while it’s hard to imagine how riveting (or “chaotic”) a gardening period drama could be, there must be something there if it attracted Winslett and Schoenaerts, the red-hot Belgian actor who appears poised to take Hollywood by storm with a few English-speaking roles in the chamber. He’ll next be seen in the Brooklyn crime picture Blood Ties alongside Mila Kunis, Clive Owen, Marion Cotillard and Zoe Saldana for director Guillaume Canet (Tell No One). Yeah, get that one on your radar. [Mail Online]
5.) Robert Redford says All is Lost, the survival picture he recently filmed with Margin Call director J.C. Chandor has “no dialogue.” Not much else is known about the film, but it’s said to be a man vs. nature film with Redford fighting to stay alive after getting lost at sea. While it’s hard to imagine a bigger turnaround for Chandor, it sounds like we might be getting a nice companion piece to Jeremiah Johnson. Check out the first picture from the film here. [Peter Howell, via The Playlist]
