In the Works: Linklater, Peele, and More

Looks like we all missed it. Most of us, anyway. Way back, December 27, Craig Hlavaty reported for the Houston Chronicle that Richard Linklater has been working on a film set in the summer of 1969. And not even quietly. “He put out at a call this week for home movies and archival footage from this heady era of Houston's history.” As the Playlist’s Kevin Jagernauth notes, the story “seemingly” got “lost amidst year-end coverage and general exhaustion.”

Hlavaty: “While shooting the critically-acclaimed Boyhood [above], Linklater began thinking about his own childhood and that pivotal summer when he was watching man walk on the moon just weeks before entering third grade. ‘You had so much going on in Houston at once: NASA, the Medical Center, the Astrodome,’ Linklater said. . . . The story will be told from the kid’s point-of-view, according to the director. Expect a great soundtrack too, featuring what Linklater calls some ‘regional hits.’ He is aiming for this Houston-based film to be released around the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 2019.”

Linklater’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette, an adaptation of Maria Semple’s novel starring Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig, Judy Greer, Laurence Fishburne, and James Urbaniak, is due in October, while a biopic based on the life of John Brinkley, the con man, “goat-gland doctor,” and radio pioneer starring Robert Downey Jr., is still in the early stages of pre-production.

Also in the Works

At Ioncinema, Nicholas Bell has begun a countdown of foreign films we can hope will be released in 2019. Ranking anywhere between #11 and #50 on this list are works from Terence Davies, Hayao Miyazaki, Marco Bellocchio, Paul Verhoeven, Roy Andersson, Mia Hansen-Løve, Joanna Hogg, Matias Piñeiro, Sarah Polley, Luca Guadagnino, Pablo Larraín, Ciro Guerra, Joaõ Pedro Rodrigues and Joaõ Rui Guerra da Mata, Ben Wheatley, Jennifer Kent, Sergei Loznitsa, and Lisandro Alsonso, among others.

The other day, Jordan Peele told the Hollywood Reporter that he will “definitely, seriously consider” a sequel to Get Out. “I love that universe and feel like there’s more story to tell. I don’t know what it is now, but there are some loose ends.”

“Xavier Dolan has made the ‘extremely difficult decision’ to cut Jessica Chastain’s character from his English-language debut, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan,” reports Deadline’s Nancy Tartaglione. On Instagram, Dolan says that “it was ‘editorial and narrative’ and has ‘nothing to do with a performance.’” And Chastain posted to her own Instagram account: “Don’t worry, I was informed in advance of this letter. This has been handled with the utmost respect and love.”

After Unsane premieres at the Berlinale, but before he starts work on Planet Kill, Steven Soderbergh will squeeze in another project, reports Jordan Raup at the Film Stage. “Set to begin production at the end of the month, the NBA drama High Flying Bird will be led by his break-out star of The Knick, André Holland. It will also mark another reunion for Holland as the script is written by Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Oscar-winning co-writer of Moonlight. While the project was initially revealed last fall, we now know more about the drama thanks to the first logline: ‘During an NBA lockout, a sports agent, Dean (Holland), presents his rookie client, Erick Scott, with an intriguing and controversial business opportunity.’”

Oscilloscope has picked up North American rights to Margarethe von Trotta and Felix Moeller’s Ingmar Bergman – Legacy of Defining Genius. According to Deadline’s Amanda N’Duka, the documentary “explores the many layers of the Swedish director’s legacy through both his closest collaborators in front of and behind the camera, as well a new generation of filmmakers forever inspired by him.”

Julianne Moore will star in a remake of Susanne Bier’s After the Wedding (2006) to be written and directed by her husband, Bart Freundlich, reports Deadline’s Peter White. “The film, which is set in New York, will provide a fresh update to the original, by casting the two lead roles as women in the story of motherhood and family. It tells the story of Isabel, who runs a dilapidated orphanage outside of Calcutta, who travels to New York to meet the New York millionaire, played by Moore, who has provided money for the orphanage. However, following the latter’s wedding, a mystery unravels.”

Suki Waterhouse (Assassination Nation) and Matt Smith (The Crown) have joined the cast of Charlie Says, “the upcoming feature from American Psycho director Mary Harron set around the infamous Charles Manson murders.” Alex Ritman has more in the Hollywood Reporter.

The cast of Edward Norton’s adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn is filling out, reports Variety’s Dave McNary. The latest additions include Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Cherry Jones.

Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro sorts through the projects lined up for James Mangold. 20th Century Fox has halted production on a Patty Hearst biopic, but given the go-ahead for a “Ford vs. Ferrari project,” and The Force, “the David Mamet scripted take on Don Winslow’s crime thriller,” is still on.

Back to Nancy Tartaglione: “Milla Jovovich has come aboard to star in sci-fi action thriller Hummingbird, from the Black List script by John McClain. Marcus Kryler and Fredrik Akerström are directing with Paul W.S. Anderson penning a revision.” The story “centers on a female assassin whose latest mark catapults her on a journey of shocking self-discovery.”

Series

“Netflix has landed The Politician, a new hour-long comedy series from longtime collaborators Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy,” reports Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva. Barbra Streisand and Gwyneth Paltrow are “in negotiations” to co-star with Ben Platt. Details “are being kept under wraps,” but the series will likely focus on “the political aspirations of Platt’s Payton, a wealthy Santa Barbarian, and every season will revolve around a different political race his character is involved in.”

Andreeva also reports that “Amazon is developing Outrider, a Western drama series with Arnold Schwarzenegger attached to star and executive produce . . . Outrider is a mystery set in the Oklahoma Indian Territory in the late 1800s. It tells the dark and dangerous tale of a deputy who is not only tasked by a notoriously brutal judge with apprehending a legendary outlaw in the wilderness—but must also partner with a ruthless Federal Marshal to make sure justice is properly served.”

“Fresh off of news that Game of Thrones creators/showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss would be creating a new trilogy of Star Wars feature films, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors Tuesday that the company is developing more than one Star Wars TV series.” Lesley Goldberg and Aaron Couch have more in the Hollywood Reporter, but let’s do note that the Benioff/Weiss trilogy is not Rian Johnson’s trilogy, which is still on. And: “HBO has yet to make a decision on the future of Confederate; Benioff and Weiss were to begin work on that straight-to-series drama after Thrones wrapped.”

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