With it having been about five years since Aki Kaurismäki‘s last picture — the great and greater-than-you-remember Le Havre — we’ve been hoping to hear something, anything about what the Finnish helmer’s been planning. Today, then, is a welcome one: while speaking to TV-Maalima (via Cineuropa), it was revealed that he’ll next take on Refugee, a spiritual successor to Le Havre and the second installment in his “trilogy focusing on port cities.”
Little is known, except that Kaurismäki has very recently been sparked by the migrant crisis developing in Tornio, Finland. From these events, he’s shaped a tale concerning a young refugee (to be played by an actor of Syrian or Iraqi descent) and, as portrayed by regular collaborator Sakari Kuosmanen, “a former travelling salesman who has become a poker player and now a restaurateur.” Compare this to Le Havre, which followed an African refugee and an aimless shoeshiner in the eponymous city, and the connections almost immediately announce themselves.
Refugee is expected to roll cameras next autumn and arrive in 2017.
News of other developments come from Variety, which tells us Dustin Guy Defa (Bad Fever) has begun shooting a new feature with Michael Cera, Abbi Jacobson (Broad City), Cera’s This Is Our Youth co-star Tavi Gevinson, Philip Baker Hall, Ben Rosenfield (A Most Violent Year, Boardwalk Empire), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire), Michaela Watkins (Casual), George Sample III, Bene Coopersmith, and Buddy Duress (Heaven Knows What).
Details on this, too, are scant, save for the simple notice that it’s “about a variety of New York characters navigating personal relationships and unexpected problems over the course of one day.” Joe Swanberg‘s Forager Films will serve as executive producers.
Lastly, Deadline reports that Michael Showalter will direct Big Sick, starring and co-written by Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley). Backed by FilmNation Entertainment and produced by Judd Apatow, plot details a sparse, but the script (co-written with Nanjiani’s wife Emily V. Gordon is based on real-life events. Expect production to begin next year.