Color me surprised. It’s been a while since there’s been any news on the elaborate film adaptation of David Grann’s excellent The Lost City of Z, a non-fiction account of explorer Percy Fawcett (who Pitt would play) and his pursuit of El Dorado (which he called ‘Z’) in the Amazon, to be directed by indie filmmaker James Gray (The Yards, We Own The Night, Two Lovers).
Despite it’s large budget (it’s apparently being sold as a Lawrence of Arabia-styled epic) and what will certainly be a long, demanding shooting schedule, reports indicate there’s much interest in the project at Cannes. [Screen Daily, via Playlist Nation]
This film would start lensing presumably after Pitt’s done shooting Moneyball, another project that died and was reborn more than once in the last couple of years. One would wager it’s Pitt’s name sticking on the projects after they’ve been passed on that have kept them afloat, as the actor remains one of the only legitimate stars left in the game.
Playlist Nation posted a couple of nice quotes from Gray regarding the tone of Lost City of Z:
“What does being a member of the civilized world mean? [Does] that mean being part of the human race?” Gray asks. “It is a fundamental issue that has strong resonance even more today than yesterday. Here is a man who spent his time in the heart of the jungle and who has found beauty.”
This definitely encapsulates the genera feeling of Grann’s account of Fawcett and should generate further hope that the film is in good hands.
All it needs now is funding.
Have you read The Lost City of Z? Would you pay to see Brad Pitt play an obsessed Amazon explorer?