In the Works: Zanussi, Lowery, and More

Krzysztof Zanussi is currently in post-production on Ether, “a psychological drama with a Faust-inspired motive, set at the beginning of the 20th Century in Galicia, about a military doctor experimenting with science in order to get power over people,” reports Katarzyna Grynienko for Film New Europe.

David Fincher’s sequel to World War Z with Brad Pitt will have to wait for Fincher to oversee the second season of Mindhunter, notes Rodrigo Perez at the Playlist, where he also reports that Fincher will direct “the premiere and finale episodes like he did in season one, Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James,Killing Me Softly) will helm another two, and filmmaker Carl Franklin (Devil in a Blue Dress,One False Move), who’s become something of a journeyman director on TV in recent years (House of Cards,The Leftovers,13 Reasons Why,Vinyl, and more), will direct the rest and bulk of the show.”

Speaking of Fincher, back in 2015, he and Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn were working on a U.S. version of the UK series Utopia for HBO. That fell apart, but now, as Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva reports, Amazon Studios has revived the project—without Fincher but with Flynn “as creator, executive producer, and showrunner. It will be the first project under an overall TV deal” with Amazon. “Utopia follows a group of young adults who meet online that are mercilessly hunted by a shadowy deep state organization after they come into possession of a near-mythical cult underground graphic novel.”

David Lowery’s Strange Angel, based on George Pendle’s 2006 book, “will launch on Thursday, June 14,” on CBS All Access, reports Dino-Ray Ramos for Deadline. “The first season will include ten episodes and will be available on demand weekly on subsequent Thursdays. . . . Jack Reynor will play Jack Parsons, the brilliant and ambitious blue-collar worker, who started as a janitor at a chemical factory but had fantastical dreams that eventually led to the birth of American rocketry. Along the way, he fell into a mysterious world that included sex magick rituals at night, ultimately becoming a disciple of occultist Aleister Crowley.”

And at IndieWire, Zack Sharf has the first images from Lowery’s The Old Man and the Gun, in which Robert Redford delivers what he says will be his final onscreen performance. The film, which also stars Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, and Tika Sumpter, will be released on October 5.

“Guillermo del Toro has signed a multi-year exclusive deal with DreamWorks Animation to write, produce, and direct animated family films for the studio,” reports Deadline’s Anthony D’Alessandro.

“Michelle Williams will star opposite Julianne Moore in the remake” of the Susanne Bier’s After the Wedding (2006), reports Variety’s Justin Kroll. Bart Freundlich (The Myth of Fingerprints, 1997) will write and direct.

Shooting is underway on the “Untitled Lone Scherfig New York Project”—in Toronto, of course. “According to the producers,” writes Vassilis Economou at Cineuropa, “the film is ‘a modern-day fairy-tale full of laughs and romance,’ that follows the lives of four individuals who are going through hard times and whose paths cross in a Russian restaurant in New York.” With Bill Nighy, Tahar Rahim, Caleb Landry Jones, Jay Baruchel, Zoe Kazan, and Andrea Riseborough.

Riseborough and Gabriel Byrne will star in ZeroZeroZero, “a drama on the international cocaine trade from the team behind hit Italian crime series Gomorrah,” reports Stewart Clarke for Variety. “The eight-part series, which is set to be one of the buzziest international dramas of 2019, is adapted from Roberto Saviano’s book and directed by Stefano Sollima.”

Jack Huston is joining Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough in Wash Westmoreland’s adaptation for Netflix of the Susanna Jones novel The Earthquake Bird, “a Tokyo-set female-driven noir thriller that tells the story of young female expat who is suspected of murder after her friend goes missing in the wake of a tumultuous love triangle with a handsome local photographer,” reports Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr.

Tracy Oliver, “who co-wrote the screenplay for the hit comedy film Girls Trip,” will write and executive produce a reboot of The First Wives Club as a half-hour comedy series, reports Joe Otterson for Variety. Like the 1996 original, starring Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton, it’ll “follow a group of New York women who band together after their marriages fall apart.”

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