While at SXSW promoting his new documentary about his “septuagenarian aunt Suzette”, A Thorn In The Heart, director Michel Gondry has discussed a number of new projects and updates on older ones. The first project is similar to Rudy Rucker‘s 1984 sci-fi novel The Master of Space and Time, which he had previously been working on a adaptation of, but has since been scrapped. Gondry told MTV this new movie involved time travel and Juno star Ellen Page is attached.
“I’d like to do a movie of this size with my own story, which would be quite amazing. But we’ll see, I’m developing a screenplay with a writer right now about kids who travel [into] the future by mistake and a machine [that] keeps people younger… ehhh, it’s complicated to explain. Ellen Page is supposed to be the main character. She’d play Nancy… a young woman who participates in the discovery and changes the world.”
The director also revealed details about another project at a SXSW, Megalomania. The animated film he has been working on for a few years with his son Paul will have voice roles by Steve Buscemi, Seth Rogen and Juliette Lewis. The Playlist reports the film is “about three kids who discover how to create energy from hair. And they shave everyone on the planet. The rich people wear and rule the world. So the rich people wear wigs and the poor people are just bald. And they want to make a better world, but the maker — which is sort of based on my son — is a horrible dictator.” Sounds interesting and only something that could come from the Gondry family. The film is currently looking for financing.
The last project Gondry talked about was The We & The I. The new project is “about the group effect, how people in groups transform when the group is dislocated, because everyone jumps out of the bus at different times, there is a smaller group and how the relationships evolve.” He was originally going to shoot this small indie drama before he got the Green Hornet gig. He said he will use unknown actors and it will very much be a “social” look at a community.
All of these projects sound interesting and I hope they fare better than Be Kind Rewind, one of my biggest disappointments in recent memory. I still love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Science of Sleep. Michel Gondry‘s latest film, The Green Hornet stars Seth Rogen and Christoph Waltz and is hitting theaters in December.
Which Gondry project are you most interested in?