Abel Ferrara is hardly the most bankable filmmaker and this project has yet to be financially secured, so let’s just hope extra-hard that the pieces fall together here. From the Italian publication La Stampa comes word that he’s moving ever closer to Siberia, a drama the director had tried (and failed) to launch via Kickstarter last year, with the previously attached Willem Dafoe now joined by the “certainly cast” Isabelle Huppert and Nicolas Cage.
Siberia‘s initial reveal was almost hilariously vague, the crowdfunding campaign labeling this endeavor “a subjective and objective journey into the subconscious” that will use Carl Jung’s Red Book as a launch pad for “[exploring] the language of dreams, myth and the natural world.” The longer synopsis sounded just as peculiar:
“We begin in an outpost far north of Jack London country where CLINT holds out with his partner MITCHELL, (Willem Dafoe in both roles) serving coffee, sympathy and an odd video game to passing strangers. All seems at one in this strange cafe. Appearance is deceptive as CLINT begins to cross the line between what is real and what is not. He is thrust on a journey across his psyche into distant lands, of epic natural beauty and the darkness of his own past and future. Soul searching by dog sled.”
News of Siberia‘s resurrection is good enough; that it might be happening with this trio in front of the camera is almost too good to be true. Also good: Huppert will lead Benoît Jacquot‘s next film, Eva, alongside Gaspard Ulliel. Based on a novel by James Hadley Chase, itself previously adapted by Joseph Losey (a former collaborator of the actress), it would likely follow a novelist erotically consumed by a wealthy Frenchwoman — a very good source material for these particular stars. [Variety]
While we’re at it, have a look at these recent — and, in one case, rather long — talks with the actress: