After a bit of back-and-forth between potential efforts, it would, finally, seem that Joe Wright is settling on a follow-up to last year’s Anna Karenina. As ever-so-briefly mentioned in a news item from The Guardian, he and Chiwetel Ejiofor (behind one of the year’s finer turns in 12 Years a Slave) have angled toward A Season in the Congo, which carries with it a significance greater than the mere involvement of either talent: the picture marks a new step for English theater company the Young Vic, who, as an outlet, are now hoping to make their mark in cinema providing “audiences an opportunity to see work they might not otherwise see.”
You’ll expect, then, that the Wright–Ejiofor effort would be a stage adaptation. As taken from Aimé Césaire‘s homonymous play, A Season in the Congo sees the duo tackling “an epic retelling of the 1960 Congo rebellion and the assassination of the charismatic political leader Patrice Lumumba,” a role which the aforementioned star is expected to tackle, schedules-permitting. Nothing of a production schedule is said to be in stone, though this title nevertheless marks the Young Vic’s most advanced film effort, development-wise — and, with as much in mind, one might think Wright puts aside whatever else may or may not be percolating for the project at hand. Some bigwigs might be counting on it, after all.
Meanwhile, TheWrap report that David Fincher‘s Gone Girl has filled a decent-sized role with the most unexpected of performers: Emily Ratajkowski, whose name many would fail to recognize, but a performer with no small amount of exposure to her credit. As the outlet explain, this young model is no other than “the bombshell beauty at the center of Robin Thicke‘s ‘Blurred Lines’ video,” a title which yours truly has nothing of significance to note — except that it’s amusing, in some sense, to picture Fincher watching both Alex Cross and that music video as a source of casting tips, hopefully with one layered atop the other à la some particulary esoteric video art installation.
In making her big cinematic break, Ratajkowski is expected to portray “Andie, a beautiful college student who Nick has an affair with before she bands together with Amy’s parents to incriminate him in her disappearance” — but, as anyone familiar with the work of author Gillian Flynn would attest, nothing is what it truly seems. As it were, Gone Girl is filled out by Rosamund Pike, the picture’s ostensible lead, while the noted Tyler Perry is to appear alongside Neil Patrick Harris, Carrie Coon, David Clennon (Syriana), and Kim Dickens (At Any Price) & Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) as a pair of detectives searching for that titular missing female.
Backed by 20th Century Fox and New Regency, Gone Girl is expected to begin production this fall.
On a final note, Fox Searchlight have announced that comeback kid Thomas Vinterberg‘s next picture, Far from the Madding Crowd, has rolled into production with a main slate locked up. Adding to the ensemble — one which, before today, already consisted of Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Tom Sturridge (On the Road) — are Juno Temple and Michael Sheen, among whom only one role has been specified: the latter will portray William Boldwood, “a prosperous and mature bachelor” who’s caught in the romantic spell of Mulligan‘s Bathsheba Everdene. Although the new actress’s part goes undisclosed, it, coming from Thomas Hardy‘s indelible English text, is not exactly “unknown.” Some waiting for clarification is necessary, still.
As adapted by David Nicholls, Far from the Madding Crowd should arrive on the fall 2014 circuit.
Do you hope to see what Wright and Ejiofor can bring to the true-life tale?